Ll49r 


Thomas  N.  Lakin. 

Reminiscences:  Life  of 
Thomas  N.  Lakin. 


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:^!S  h!5iorii:al  suRVEi 


ileminl0tenct0 


LIFE    OF    THOMAS    N.    LAKIN 


:^!5TORKA': 


T^xdnn. 


It  was  one  of  the  great  ambitions  in  the  life  of  Father  Lakin 
to  "die  in  the  harness"  as  he  often  expressed  it.  He  stuck  to  his 
post  and  kept  up  his  work  as  editor  of  The  Union  until  along  in 
January.  Chafing  under  his  enforced  detention  at  home  he  want- 
ed to  be  doing  something.  His  family  suggested  that  he  write  a 
sketch  of  his  life  that  would  tell  something  of  the  history  of  the 
time  in  which  he  had  lived.  This  seemed  to  please  him  and  he 
eagerly  set  himself  to  the  task.  Sometimes  as  he  wrote  he  was 
racked  with  pain  or  so  weak  he  could  scarcely  hold  the  tablet  on 
the  arm  of  his  chair.  But  he  persevered  and  has  not  only  given 
the  story  of  his  own  life  but  has  woven  into  the  narrative  the  his- 
tory of  his  day  as  he  saw  it.  The  story  was  finished  just  one 
month  before  he  died  on  the  19th  of  March,  1917. 

In  addition  we  have  given  some  of  the  funeral  service,  in- 
cluding the  tributes  paid  to  his  memory  by  Rev.  C.  D.  Shumard, 
Rev.  S.  B.  Murray  and  Rev.  N.  Bascom. 

In  loving  memory. 

HIS  SONS. 


"As  we  grow  older,  and  the  shadows  begin  to  lengthen,  and 
the  leaves  which  seemed  so  thick  in  youth  above  our  heads  grow 
thin  and  show  the  sky  beyond,  and  as  those  in  the  ranks  in  front 
drop  away,  and  we  come  in  sight,  as  we  all  must,  of  the  eternal 
rifle  pits  beyond,  a  man  begins  to  feel  that  among  the  really  prec- 
ious things  of  life — more  lasting  and  more  substantial  than  many 
of  the  objects  of  ambition  here — is  the  love  of  those  he  loves  and 
the  friendship  of  those  whose  frindship  he  prizes." 


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MY  EARLIEST  RECOLLECTIONS. 

I  was  born  in  Freeport,  Harrison  County,  Ohio,  Aug.  13, 
1843.  My  parents'  names  were  Thomas  Newton  Lakin  and  Mary 
Ann  Lakin,  nee  Pepper.  My  father  was  a  saddle  and  harness  mak- 
er by  trade.  Four  children  were  born  to  these  parents:  Almira 
(Allie),  Albert,  Malissa  and  myself.  Malissa  died  before  I  was 
born.  Mother  died  when  I  was  only  seven  days  old  and  we  chil- 
dren were  scattered  to  different  homes.  Allie  was  taken  to  the 
home  of  Uncle  Samuel  Lakin  and  Albert  went  to  the  home  of 
Uncle  Josephus  Lakin,  both  of  whom  lived  in  Dresden,  O.  Uncle 
Joshua  Pepper  and  Aunt  Catherine  took  me  to  their  home  near 
New  Philadelphia,  Tuscarawas  County,  0.,  Aunt  carrying  me  on 
a  pillow  over  that  rugged  thirty  miles  of  road.  I  was  so  puny  that 
they  scarcely  expected  to  raise  me,  but  Aunty's  careful  nursing 
brought  me  through  all  right.  I  was  raised  on  cow's  milk  and  un- 
cle Joshua  would  often  get  up  at  midnight  to  milk  the  cow  for  me. 
He  often  told  me  that  in  the  first  three  years  of  my  life  I  drank 
thirteen  barrels  of  milk. 

My  earliest  recollection  was  of  the  marriage  of  my  cousin, 
Almira  Cochran  to  B.  C.  Cochran  which  occurred  on  the  Old  Town 
farm  in  1846.  Later  Uncle  Joshua  moved  to  New  Philadelphia  to 
"keep"  tavern  and  I  remained  on  the  farm  with  Cochran's.  That 
summer  I  saw  the  men  mowing  grass  and  didn't  give  Cochran  any 
peace  till  he  made  me  a  wooden  scythe,  with  which  I  mowed  my- 
self nearly  to  death. 

I  spent  quite  a  good  deal  of  my  time  from  1843  to  1849  on 
the  farm  although  I  liked  the  hotel  with  uncle  and  aunt.  Among 
my  early  recollections  of  the  farm  was  the  McKnight  maple  sugar 
•grove  just  across  the  Old  Town  creek.  One  winter  I  went  over 
and  saw  them  hauling  the  maple  water  on  a  sled  in  the  deep  snow 
to  the  kettles.  Will  and  Hugh  McKnight  were  several  years  older 
than  I  and  they  were  hauling  the  sugar  water.  Hugh  is  still  living 
in  Ramsey,  111.,  aged  about  80  years. 

It  was  during  this  early  life  on  the  farm  that  I  saw  men 
reaping  wheat  with  a  sickle.  When  the  cradle  came  into  use  farm- 
ers thought  the  very  height  of  invention  had  been  reached.  Five 
good  cradlers  could  cut  ten  acres  a  day.  But  invention  did  not 
{■■top  here.  In  the  early  fifties  the  McCormick  reaper  and  mower 
superceded  the  cradle.  This  was  a  crude  affair  at  first,  the  grain 
being  raked  off  the  platform  by  a  man  walking  along  side  the  ma- 
chine. It  was  my  good  fortune  while  visiting  with  my  aunt,  a  cous- 
in of  her's  named  Baltzle  near  Tiffin,  Seneca  County,  O.  in  1853 


to  witness  one  of  these  first  McCormick  reapers  put  to  work  in  his 
field.  (It  was  while  visiting  here  that  I  v/as  indviced  by  the  two 
Baltzle  boys  to  take  a  bite  of  an  Indian  turnip  which  we  found 
in  the  woods.     I  have  never  wanted  another) , 

The  wheat  and  oats  cut  with  a  sickle  and  cradle  was  mostly 
tramped  out  on  a  barn  floor  or  on  a  clean  spot  of  ground  by  horses 
and  oxen  and  then  the  grain  was  separated  from  the  chaff  by  shak- 
ing it  in  a  strong  wind  or  run  through  a  wind  mill.  Some  farmers 
used  flails  to  beat  the  grain  out  of  the  straw.  This  was  the  clean- 
er way.  But  about  1850  the  old  "chaff  piler"  was  brought  into 
vogue  and  was  deemed  one  of  the  greatest  inventions  of  the  age. 
It  consisted  of  only  the  cylinder  box  as  in  modern  machines.  The 
grain,  chaff  and  straw  were  all  thrown  out  at  the  rear  and  had  to 
be  separated  by  men  with  pitchforks,  scoops  and  a  wind  mill.  Quite 
a  number  of  these  machines  were  manufactured  at  the  foundry 
in  New  Philadelphia  but  were  soon  superseded  by  the  Massillon 
separator  which  has  sinces  been  developed  into  the  modern  thresh- 
er and  stacker.  Contemporary  v^dth  the  sickle  and  the  cradle  were 
the  old  lard  lamps  made  by  placing  a  wick  or  piece  of  cotton  cloth 
in  a  saucer  or  metal  vessel  of  lard.  They  served  their  purpose  in 
homes  of  the  poor  but  the  wealthier  used  tallow  dips  or  tallow  can- 
dles and  the  candle  sticks  or  holders  and  snuffers  were  often  of 
elegant  design,  tin,  brass  or  steel.  The  kerosene  or  coal  oil  lamp 
did  not  come  into  use  till  1859  or  '60.  This  was  considered  a  great 
luxury  as  well  as  a  blessing,  but  gas  and  electricity  in  cities  have 
driven  the  "coal  oil"  lamp  out  of  use.  But  the  farm  homes  still 
need  and  use  them. 

In  1850  Cochran  caught  the  "gold  fever,"  brought  his  wife 
and  two  children  to  town  to  live  with  Uncle  Joshua  and  went  by 
the  New  York-Panama  route  to  California.  This  ended  my  visits, 
to  the  farm. 

BOYHOOD  PRANKS  AND  SCHOOL. 

New  Philadelphia  was  a  beautiful  town,  the  county  seat  of 
Tuscarawas  County  ,Ohio,  situated  on  a  high  plain  or  plateau  on 
the  bluffs  of  the  Tuscarawas  river,  a  tributary  of  the  Muskingum. 
Betv/een  the  bluff  on  which  the  town  was  situated  and  the  river 
was  the  side-cut  fed  by  a  dam  above  tov/n  to  run  the  flour  mill, 
woolen  mill  and  saw  mill.  Beyond  the  river  and  following  its 
course  was  the  Ohio  canal  v/hich  v/as  the  only  means  of  transpor- 
tation, except  by  team  and  wagon,  from  the  north  to  the  south 
part  of  the  state.  But  railroads  soon  relegated  the  canal  to  in- 
nocuous deseutude. 

I  was  too  young  to  go  to  school  while  we  lived  at  the  hotel,, 
but  not  too  young  to  give  my  foster  parents  considerable  concern 
and  anxiey.     Two  freaks  may  be  mentioned.     I  w^anted  a  pair  of 


boots  but  Uncle  got  me  another  pair  of  shoes.  These  I  deliberately 
hacked  to  pieces  with  a  hatchet  and  taking  them  in  to  Aunt  Katie 
exclaimed,  "Now  Ollie,"  I  called  her  Ollie,  "See  they  are  all  'wored' 
out."  I  got  the  boots  instead  of  a  spanking  which  I  deserved.  An- 
other time  while  carpenters  were  putting  a  new  roof  on  our  3-story 
"tavern"  I  took  advantage  of  their  absence  at  dinner  and  climbed 
the  ladder  and  half  way  up  the  roof  before  I  was  discovered.  Con- 
sternation seized  all  the  beholders.  They  vv^ere  afraid  to  make  an 
out-cry  lest  I  should  look  down,  get  dizzy  and  fall.  One  of  the 
men  crept  up  silently  behind  me  and  rescued  me  from  my  peril. 
I  was  between  5  and  6  years  of  age.  It  vv^as  while  living  in  the 
tavern  that  I  saw  the  Mexican  soldiers  (recruits)  drilling,  was 
thrilled  by  the  martial  music  and  inspired  by  Old  Glory  floating  to 
the  breeze.  The  latter  did  not  have  as  many  stars  as  now  to  adorn 
its  blue  field  but  I  loved  it  just  the  same. 

In  1849  I  started  to  school  in  the  old  market  place  while 
the  high  school  building  was  being  erected.  I  had  had  my  feet 
frozen  and  I  remember  one  day  they  itched  so  badly  that  I  was 
nearly  crazy  with  them  and  the  teacher  had  to  send  me  home.  Be- 
fore leaving  Philadelphia  in  1854  I  had  reached  what  was  then 
called  the  "grammar"  department  in  the  high  school.  How  I  did 
it  I  never  knew,  because  the  lakes  of  ice  back  next  the  hills  in  the 
winter  time  and  the  old  swimmin'  hole  in  the  river  in  the  summer 
time  were  such  inducements  to  me  to  play  "hookey"  that  I  could 
not  resist  the  temptation  to  spend  much  time  on  or  in  them.  Of 
course  I  was  duly  spanked  if  caught  but  they  didn't  often  catch  me. 
One  of  my  most  exciting  experiences  along  this  line  was  as  follows: 

One  day  about  10  o'clock  in  the  forenoon  of  a  hot  summer 
day  the  temptation  to  hike  to  the  old  swimming  hole  was  too  great 
and  I  took  down  the  alley  back  of  our  barn.  Suddenly  I  spied 
Uncle  and  Mr.  Judy  coming  down  the  alley.  I  ran  to  the  buggy 
shed  and  crawled  back  under  a  buggy  seat  to  hide.  What  was  my 
surprise  to  feel  them  running  the  buggy  out  and  hitching  up! 
They  drove  up  town  and  then  down  to  the  river.  Instead  of  driv- 
ing across  the  bridge  they  drove  down  into  the  river  to  wash  the 
buggy.  The  water  came  up  into  the  buggy  and  I  had  to  crouch  up 
tight  aganist  the  seat  to  keep  from  getting  wet,  but  I  never 
squealed.  They  then  drove  up  to  the  center  of  town  and  stopped 
v/hile  ihey  dir:Cussed  a  trip  to  Wooster,  a  day's  drive  away.  Imagine 
my  relief  when  they  decided  to  put  the  trip  off  until  the  next  day 
and  drove  back  to  the  barn,  ran  the  buggy  in  and  went  away  leav- 
ing me  still  undiscovered.     I  never  repeated  the  experiment. 

Though  the  first  telegraph  line,  from  Baltimore  to  Wash- 
ington was  erected  in  1844,  it  was  not  until  1850  or  '51  that  a 
telegraph  line  was  erected  through  New  Philadelphia.  It  was  a 
wondrous  marvel  to  us  boys  and  to  many  older  ones  as  well.  We 
couldn't  understand  how  the  message  could  be  conveyed  over  an 


iron  wire.  Some  thought  it  had  to  be  done  by  pieces  of  paper  but 
the  impossibility  of  such  a  means  soon  became  apparent  and  the 
mystery  remained.  I  remember  of  having  often  gone  into  Nich- 
ol's  drug  store  where  the  telegraph  instruments  were  located  and 
watching  the  tape-receiving  instrument  operate.  Since  then  the 
telegraph  wires  have  been  extended  to  every  state  and  country 
in  the  world  and  have  made  possible  the  diffusion  of  news  through 
the  daily  papers  from  every  part  of  the  earth  every  morning  for 
breakfast. 

OUR  JOURNEY  TO  ILLINOIS  OVERLAND. 

October  2,  1854  closed  my  career  in  New  Philadelphia, 
Ohio,  for  on  that  date  I  bade  adieux  to  the  playmates  and  school- 
mates of  my  eai-ly  boyhood  and  with  Uncle  Joshua  and  Aunt  start- 
ed for  Illinois,  the  then  far  West.  We  rode  in  an  elegant  tv/o 
seated  carriage  with  glass  doors,  drawn  by  a  magnificent  team. 
Our  route  was  via,  Newark,  Columbus,  Springfield  and  Dayton,  O., 
Richmond,  Indianapolis,  Greencastle  and  Terre  Haute,  Ind.,  and 
Paris,  Charleston,  Mattoon  and  Shelbyville  to  Taylorville,  111.,  ar- 
riving at  the  latter  place  Oct.  22nd,  having  been  20  days  enroute, 
including  a  four  days  stop  with  Major  Blake  in  Indianapolis  and 
a  visit  to  Columbus,  Ind.,  to  see  Brother  Albert  and  to  Flat  Rock 
near  there  to  see  Sister  Allie,  who  were  living  with  their  uncles 
at  these  places.  Our  trip  to  Columbus  was  over  the  railroad 
running  from  Chicago  to  Cincinnati  and  v/as  my  first  experience 
on  a  railroad  train,  a  primitive  affair  indeed  compared  with  the 
palace  cars  of  the  present  day.  The  season  had  been  a  remark- 
ably dry  one  through  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois  and  the  crops 
had  been  so  poor  through  Indiana  that  it  was  often  difficult  to 
obtain  feed  for  our  team.  Our  route  from  Columbus,  O.  to 
Terre  Haute  was  over  the  National  road,  splendidly  piked  through 
Ohio  but  moslty  planked  through  Indiana.  On  these  planked 
roads  we  had  frequently  to  pay  toll.  In  passing  from  one  state 
to  another  Uncle  Joshua  had  to  have  all  his  money  exchanged 
for  the  state  bank  money  of  the  state  we  were  entering.  That 
was  when  money  of  one  state  was  not  current  in  another  state. 
Quite  a  contrast  from  the  present  (1917)  when  our  national 
paper  money  is  not  only  good  in  every  state  of  the  union,  but 
in  nearly  every  country  of  the  world. 

Soon  after  leaving  Shelbyville  we  came  upon  our  first 
view  of  a  really  grand  prairie,  reaching  from  near  Shelbyville 
to  the  Flat  Branch  timber  just  east  of  Taylorville.  It  took  us 
nearly  a  half  a  day  to  cross  it.  What  was  then  called  Tacusa, 
but  is  now  Assumption,  was  situated  about  half  way  across  on 
the  Illinois  Central  and  was  then  a  village  of  a  fev/  houses.  The 
Central  had  been  graded  to  Tacusa  but  the  track  had  not  quite 
reached  there  yet. 


TMurray,  Rev,  Naaman  Bascom. 

Song  Selections:  "Abide  With  Me,"  "Saved  by  Grace," 
"Lead  Kindly  Light." 

Choir:  Miss  Castilla  Sayles,  Miss  Celia  Chandler,  Mr.  C.  F. 
Easterday,   Mr.   Chas.   L.   Rummel. 

Pall  Bearers:  William  Mull,  Elmer  E.  Mull,  Al  Wilson, 
Royal  Cheney,  Al  Hunter,  Charles  Hunter,  all 
nephews  of  the  deceased. 

Floral  Offerings:  Forty-three  bouquets  and  pieces. 

Interment:  South  Hill  cemetery.  Masonic  Fraternity  offi- 
ciating. 

TRIBUTE  BY  REV.  C.  D.  SHUMARD. 

"I  have  fought  a  good  fight.  I  have  finished  the  course.  I 
liave  kept  the  faith."  I  do  not  quote  these  words  this  afternoon 
as  the  basis  of  a  sermon  for  I  am  not  going  to  try  to  preach,  but 
I  use  them  because  of  their  true  application  to  the  life  of  our 
brother  in  whose  memory  we  meet  at  this  hour.  If  I  have  ever 
stood  beside  the  casket  of  one  in  which  I  felt  the  assurance  of 
the  propriety  of  using  these  words  I  feel  it  this  afternoon.  "I 
have  fought  a  good  fight.  I  have  finished  the  course.  I  have  kept 
the  faith."  And  yet  somehow  there  comes  to  my  mind  now  the 
thought  that  I  ought  to  use  that  in  the  third  person,  singular, 
rather  than  in  the  first  person;  he  has  fought  a  good  fight;  he  has 
finished  the  course;  he  has  kept  the  faith;  for  those  who  have 
known  Brother  Lakin  during  the  years  of  his  life,  know  his  ex- 
treme modesty  and  how  very  loath  he  v/ould  have  been  to  apply 
those  words  to  himself;  how  slow  he  would  have  been  to  say,  "I 
have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  the  course,  I  have  kept 
the  faith."  And  yet,  you  who  knew  him  best,  who  have  been  so 
closely  associated  with  him  during  the  years  of  his  residence 
here,  know  how  true  and  how  applicable  these  words  are  to 
him  and  to  that  life;  how  earnest  and  faithful  and  conscientions, 
and  true  to  his  sense  of  principle  he  has  been;  how  loyal  he  has 
been  to  that  which  he  believed  to  be  right,  and  yet  at  all  times 
how  thoughtful  he  was  of  the  feelings  of  others.  In  my  four 
years,  nearly,  of  close  associatibn  with  him,  and  sometimes 
under  very  trying  circumstances,  I  never  heard  him  use  a  word 
that  would  have  wounded  the  feelings  of  another.  I  have  to 
admit  this  afternoon  that  I  am  not  always  that  thoughtful  and 
that  careful,  and  sometimes  when  I  v.'ould  use  language  that  was 
just  a  little  strong  his  quietness  of  reply  would  modify  the  words 
that  I  had  used  and  over  and  over  again  was  I  impressed  not  only 
■with  the  honor  and  his  thorough  application  of  the  principles 
which  he  believed  yet  of  his  thoughtfulness  of  the  feelings  of 
others. 

If  ever  I  had  a  feeling  in  my  heart  that  I  should  chide  him 
it  was   because   of  that.     It  v/as   rather   because   of  his   intense 


/ 


tenderness,  and  unwillin^ess  to  use  a  word  that  possibly  might 
wound  another,  and  this  afternoon,  that  which  sometimes  seemed 
to  be  just  a  little  weakness  stands  forth  as  the  strength  of  the 
man ;  as  the  work  of  the  principles  that  controlled  him.  Never 
lacking  in  loyalty  to  God;  never  lacking  in  kindness  to  his 
fellowmen.  This  has  been  characteristic  of  him  through  the 
years  that  I  have  been  permitted  to  be  associated  with  him.  I 
notice  in  the  facts  given  to  me  for  the  obituary  of  his  election 
to  the  county  as  Superintendent  or  President  of  the  County 
Sunday  School  Association  back  there  in  1894.  It  was  either 
in  that  year  or  the  following  one  that  I  first  met  Brother  Lakin 
because  it  was  in  the  conducting  of  that  work  that  I  was  first 
associated  with  him,  but  our  acquaintance  in  reality  began  with 
my  coming  as  Pastor  to  Vandalia.  I  found  him  as  Superintend- 
ent of  the  Sunday  School  when  I  came  here  and  it  was  with 
intense  regret  that  I  finally  recognized  the  necessity  under  his 
pleading  to  permit  him  to  retire  from  that  position.  So  capable, 
so  faithful,  so  kind,  so  practical  in  his  conduct  of  the  school  that 
I  questioned  the  advisability  of  a  change  and  it  was  only  when 
he  pleaded  his  own  health  needs  and  the  duty  which  he  owed  to 
his  family  to  care  for  his  health  the  best  he  could  that  I  finally 
consented  to  entertain  for  a  moment  the  thought  of  his  re- 
tirement. Long  years  he  gave  to  that  service  and  the  Sunday 
School  today  in  this  church  is  built  upon  the  sure  foundations 
layed  by  our  brother  who  lies  within  the  casket.  Truly  with 
regard  to  this  work,  and  with  regard  to  all  other  phases  of  his 
life  we  can  say,  he  has  fought  a  good  fi^ght,  he  has  been  faithful 
to  the  interests  that  have  been  committed  to  his  care,  he  has 
proven  himself  a  true  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  has  proven 
himself  an  efficient  worker  in  the  Master's  Kingdom,  and  his 
passing  from  this  life  leaves  a  vacancy  here  that  will  take  time 
to  heal.  I  did  not  say  it  would  take  time  to  fill  for  we  know  not 
which  way  to  turn  to  find  another  that  can  take  his  place  in  the 
church  work  but  the  church  will  feel  the  hurt  for  many  days  yet 
to   come. 

For  fifty-five  years  he  was  an  active,  earnest  servant  of 
his  Lord.  For  fifty-five  years  he  gave  himself  with  all  the  in- 
tensity of  his  manhood  to  the  service  of  Jesus  Christ.  Surely 
with  almost  three  score  years  we  are  at  perfect  liberty  to  use 
the  words,  "he  has  fought  a  good  fight,  he  has  finished  the  course, 
he  has  kept  the  faith."  His  business  life,  his  touch  with  this 
town,  this  community,  and  this  county,  and  the  larger  sphere 
as  he  came  in  touch  with  it,  as  an  editor  of  a  paper,  has  left  its 
impress  upon  that  larger  field,  and  while  sometimes  it  may  be  he 
did  not  see  as  you  did,  sometimes  it  may  be  that  you  did  not  see 
as  he  did,  yet  I  believe  I  am  safe  in  saying  that  always  and  at  all 
times  our  brother  has  stood  true  to  what  he  believed  to  be  right. 


across  the  trackless  prairie  toward  his  goal.  Ever  and  anon  along 
the  branches,  (creeks),  dry,  only  in  time  of  freshets,  snatches 
of  willows  and  few  stunted  elms  might  be  found.  With  these 
exceptions  the  prairies  were  treeless. 

The  prairie  sod  was  broken  for  tillage  with  a  ten  foot 
beam  twenty-four  inch  plow,  with  cvitter,  and  drawn  by  four  or 
five  yoke  of  oxen.  To  the  front  of  the  plow  beam  were  at- 
tached two  wheels,  one  running  in  the  furrow.  The  plow  beams 
were  lowered  or  raised  by  a  long  lever  reaching  from  the  front 
gear  to  the  plow  in  the  rear.  With  such  an  outfit  one  man 
could  "break"  from  two  to  four  acres  a  day,  owing  to  the  length 
of  the  furrow,  sometimes  a  half  a  mile. 

I  FALL  IN  LOVE  AT  ELEVEN. 

We  had  no  school  or  meeting  place  till  1857-8  when  the 
Buckeye  school  house  was  built,  but  we  youngsters  would  gener- 
ally  arrange   to   get  together   at  one   of   the   homes   on    Sunday 

afternoons  in  good  weather  and  have  a  good  time.  It  was  on 
one  of  these  occasions  that  we  met  at  McCunes  in  the  spring  of 
1855.  Between  their  home  and  ours  a  branch  (creek)  ran  which 
at  that  time  had  quite  a  number  of  pools  of  water  in  it.  McCunes 
had  a  lot  of  ducks.  A  little  nine-year-old,  black  haired,  black- 
eyed  lass,  with  rosy  cheeks  and  a  ringing,  cheery  laugh  that  was 
an  inspiration,  and  I  conceived  the  idea  of  driving  those  ducks 
back  and  forth  through  the  water,  she  from  one  side  and  I  the 
other.  She  was  my  affinity.  It  was  a  case  of  love  at  first  sight 
and  it  never  waned  and  eventuated  in  our  marriage  in  later 
years.  It  is  said  that  true  love  never  runs  smoothly  and  by  that 
sign  I  know  that  our  love  must  have  been  true.  She  had  a  num- 
ber of  other  lovers  and  they  frequently  crossed  our  path  but 
each  reconciliation  oniy  served  to  strengthen  our  love  for  each 
other. 

Rebecca  Hunter  was  born  May  26,  184G  on  Sugar  Creek 
just  acoss  and  up  the  river  three  miles  from  New  Philadelphia. 
Her  parents  were  William  and  Susan  Hunter.  In  1853  Mr.  Hunt- 
er and  several  others  from  that  community  came  overland  in  cov- 
ered wagons  to  Illinois.  There  were  ten  wagons  and  a  jolly  crowd. 
When  they  arrived  at  Terre  Haute  the  Wabash  river  was  on  a  ram- 
page and  they  had  to  wait  two  or  three  days  before  they  covild 
ford  it.  Finally  father  Hunter  determined  to  make  the  effort.  He 
blocked  his  wagon  bed  up  between  the  standards  as  high  as  he 
could,  placed  his  smaller  children  in  the  wagon,  closed  the  cover 
as  tight  as  possible  and  plunged  into  the  raging  torrent  with  his 
four-horse  team,  he  astride  of  the  near  wheel  horse.  Although 
the  team  had  to  swim  part  of  the  time  they  got  across  safely.  The 
others  then  followed.     They  arrived  here  the  latter  part  of  Oc- 


tober  1853  and  settled  in  what  was  known  as  the  Frailey  neigh- 
borhood until  Mr.  Hunter  could  build  the  house  on  Buckeye  Prairie 
before  mentioned.  From  that  time  on  the  Hunters  were  intimately 
and  prominently  connected  with  the  settlement  and  history  of 
Buckeye  Prairie. 


THE  FIRST  SCHOOL  HOUSE  ON  BUCKEYE  PRAIRIE. 

As  stated  the  Buckeye  school  house  was  not  built  until 
the  latter  part  of  1865.  Stephen  Balliet  and  John  Baltzy  were  the 
contractors  and  builders.  While  other  school  houses,  mostly  log, 
built  around  the  skirts  of  the  timber  had  slabs  for  seats  and  a 
plank  against  the  wall  for  a  writing  desk  the  Buckeye  school  house 
was  fitted  with  nice  desks  and  seats,  home-made  of  course.  Oh,  but 
we  Buckeyes  were  proud  of  our  new  school  house.  In  the  mean- 
time a  number  of  other  Ohio  families  had  come  into  the  neighbor- 
hood, some  of  them  with  good  sized  families  and  the  first  school 
was  largely  attended.  Henry  L.  Mull,  a  former  teacher  in  Ohio, 
had  come  here  the  year  before  and  was  employed  to  teach,  and 
remained  the  teacher  for  several  successive  terms.  He  was  an 
excellent  teacher  for  the  time  but  many  of  his  methods  would  not 
pass  muster  today.  But  we  urchins  having  been  deprived  of  school 
so  long,  felt  the  need  of  an  education  most  keenly  and  bent  our 
every  energy  toward  acquiring  it.  Some  of  the  boys,  notably  the 
Larges  and  the  Overholtz  became  prominent,  some  eminent  in  the 
business  and  social  circles  of  the  county  and  state. 

The  Buckeye  School  house  was  the  neucleus  up  till  after  the 
Civil  War  for  all  kinds  of  public  gatherings,  chief  and  most  in- 
teresting and  helpful  of  which  was  the  debating  society.  In  this 
society  which  held  its  meetings  in  the  winter  time  old  men  and 
young  took  an  active  part  and  many  important  questions  were  dis- 
cussed and  forever  settled.  People  came  from  miles  around  to 
hear  these  debates  and  listen  to  the  official  organ  of  the  society, 
The  Clarion,  which  often  bawled  people  out  as  badly  as  the 
modern  yellow  journals. 

It  was  here  where  the  first  preaching  services  were  held  by 
the  Methodist  people  and  great  revivals  resulted  in  the  conversion 
of  many  young  men  and  women.  It  was  during  a  revival  in  the 
Buckeye  school  house  in  1860  that  Rebecca  Hunter  and  many  oth- 
ers including  the  v/riter,  were  converted.  Rev.  D.  P.  Lyons  was 
the  preacher  in  charge.  A  Sunday  School  was  instituted  at  once 
and  continued  a  force  in  that  community  until  the  Buckeye  Meth- 
odist church  was  built  in  1867,  when  the  Sunday  School  as  well 
as  the  church  services  was  removed  there. 


THE  SETTLEMENT  EXPANDS. 

The  little  Buckeye  settlement  was  not  left  long  alone  in 
its  glory.  It  soon  began  to  grow.  Those  who  moved  into  the  com- 
munity were  nearly  all  Ohioans  and  a  warm  fraternal  feeling  ex- 
isted. Everybody  was  a  neighbor  of  everybody  else,  no  matter 
how  many  miles  intervened.  The  first  settlement,  other  than  the 
Buckeye  colony  already  mentioned,  was  made  at  what  was  called 
"The  Mound"  four  miles  west  of  the  Buckeye  school  house  and 
bordering  on  the  South  Fork  timber.  The  "Mound"  school  in  the 
early  sixties  was  a  competitor  for  educational  and  social  honors  of 
the  Buckeye  school,  but  it  could  never  reach  the  high  place  in  the 
esteem  of  the  people  that  the  latter  enjoyed.  Soon  the  section  in- 
tervening began  to  settle  up  but  it  remained  for  Uncle  Joshua  Pep- 
per to  pilot  the  way  still  further  out  into  the  bleak  prairie,  hav- 
ing purchased  a  tract  of  land  two  and  a  half  miles  southeast  of 
the  Buckeye  school  house  on  which  he  built  the  first  brick  house 
ever  built  on  Buckeye  Prairie  or  in  Rosemond  township.  In  fact, 
the  first  in  the  county  outside  of  Taylorville.  In  1855  B.  C.  Coch- 
ran built  himself  a  log  house  on  his  farm  and  mvoed  into  it,  leav- 
ing us  in  possession  of  the  Overholtz  house.  The  following  winter 
Henry  Mull  and  I  went  to  the  timber  five  miles  north,  every  day 
that  wias  fit,  to  cut  cord  wood  with  which  to  burn  a  kiln  of  brick 
for  uncle  who  was  a  practical  brick  layer.  The  latter  part  of  the 
winter  1855-'56  was  quite  cold  and  deep  snows  covered  the  ground. 
It  fell  to  my  lot,  now  13  years  old,  to  haul  the  cord  wood  home  on 
a  sled  drawn  by  a  yoke  of  oxen.  That  I  often  came  near  freezing 
seemed  to  make  little  difference. 

The  following  summer,  1856,  we  prepared  a  brick  yard  for 
the  drying  of  brick,  about  half  way  between  where  we  lived  and 
the  MeCune  home.  We  had  an  old  fashioned  mud  mill  propelled  by 
a  horse  attached  to  a  long  lever.  Uncle  moulded  the  brick  and 
I  off-bore  them  in  the  moulds  to  dry  on  the  yard.  In  the  fall  we 
burned  the  brick  and  on  opening  the  kiln  found  that  about  two- 
thirds  of  the  brick  were  good  and  fit  to  use.  The  clay  was  not 
good  brick  clay. 

It  was  with  these  brick  that  Uncle  built  his  home,  in  what 
afterwards  became  Rosemond  township,  in  the  fall  of  1856.  In 
1871  he  built  a  two-story  brick  addition  to  the  original  house.  The 
brick  for  this  addition  were  hauled  from  Pana. 

March  2nd,  1857,  we  moved  from  the  Overholtz  house  near 
the  Buckeye  school  hovxse  to  the  little  brick.  The  day  was  mod- 
erately nice  but  that  night  there  came  up  a  big  snow  storm,  fol- 
lowed by  a  sleet  which  froze  on  top  of  the  snow  and  at  night  would 
produce  a  cracking  sound  almost  like  gun  shots.  This  snow  lay  on 
for  one  or  two  weeks  and  made  getting  around  almost  impossible. 
Fortunately  we  had  laid  in  a  supply  of  dry  wood  and  logs  and  on 
these  I  had  splendid  exercise  with  an  axe  and  saw.     The  house  was 


unplastered  and  only  loose  boards  formed  a  ceiling.  It  kept  us 
busy  keeping  warm. 

We  had  no  neighbors  within  two  miles  and  a  half,  until 
Jerry  Murray  built  his  house,  the  first  two-story  frame  erected  on 
the  prairie.  He  had  a  large  family  of  boys  and  girls  some  of 
them  nearly  grown.  These  with  the  Larges,  the  Eberts,  the  Grin- 
lins,  the  Rosenberrys,  the  Simpsons  added  greatly  to  the  social 
side  of  Buckeye  life.  Before  leaving  the  period  between  1855  and 
1857  there  are  several  things  of  interest  that  might  be  mentioned. 

Game  was  quite  plentiful,  particularly  deer,  prairie  chick- 
ens, sandhill  cranes,  wild  geese  and  ducks.  Bill  and  Joe  Durbin 
and  Jim  Painter  of  the  Locust  creek  settlement  and  Tom  Voss  of 
the  Mound  were  the  great  deer  hunters,  but  the  deer  became  ex- 
tinct three  or  four  years  later  as  the  settlements  grew.  Sandhill 
cranes,  of  which  there  were  large  numbers,  were  wild  and  inter- 
esting fowls.  They  were  of  a  grayish  white,  large  body  and  long 
neck.  Their  heads,  when  standing  up,  were  four  or  five  feet  from 
the  ground.  Of  a  cold,  frosty  morning  they  could  be  seen  dancing 
around  the  corn  shocks  or  in  the  wheatfield;  but  they  v/ere  always 
alert  and  difficult  to  shoot.  They  became  extinct  about  forty  years 
ago.  Where  their  hatching  resorts  v/ere  was  never  learned.  Prairie 
chickens  were  numerous  but  they,  too,  are  almost  extinct. 

In  the  fall  of  1856  Uncle  Joshua  had  a  very  narrow  escape 
from  death.  While  breaking  some  prairie  sod  up  near  our  new 
home  for  a  garden  spot,  he  holding  the  plow  and  I  driving  the  ox 
team,  he  imagined  there  was  something  wrong  v/ith  the  off  ox's 
bough  and  stepped  between  them  to  adjust  it.  This  scared  the 
oxen  and  they  started  to  run.  The  ox  chain  wrappped  around  his 
ankle  and  he  fell  backward  alongside  the  plow.  The  oxen  ran  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  dragging  Uncle  and  the  plow,  with  me  after 
them  as  fast  as  I  could  run.  I  thought  he  would  be  dead  and  I  had 
the  fright  of  my  life.  I  got  the  oxen  stopped  finally  and  found 
Uncle  pretty  badly  bruised  but  much  alive.  I  got  him  rolled  onto 
a  sled  and  hauled  him  that  two  miles  over  the  rough  prairie.  lie 
recovered  fully  in  about  two  weeks. 

THE  FIRST  MASSILLON  SEPARATOR. 

It  was  in  1856  that  Wm  .Hunter  and  sons  brought  the  first 
Massilion  separator  to  Buckeye  Prairie,  in  fact  the  first  to  Chris- 
tian county.  It  v/as  driven  by  horse  pov>'er.  They  did  threshing 
all  over  Buckeye  Prairie,  over  the  South  Fork,  Locust  and  Flat 
Branch  neighborhoods  and  going  nearly  to  Springfield.  Thej' 
had  a  monoply  of  the  business  for  several  years.  The  first  thresher 
force  was  composed  of  Mr.  Hunter,  John  Hunter,  Phillip  Baker 
and  Joe  Crothers.  Mr.  Hunter  died  in  1858  and  Mrs.  Hunter  in 
1859.     After  that  Thornton  Hunter,  who  had  come  from  Ohio  in 


1856,  went  with  the  machine  and  Jacob  Hunter  went  as  driver  of 
the  horse  power. 

My  first  introduction  to  Thornton  Hunter  was  in  the  spring 
of  1856  and  was  not  a  very  dignified  affair.  I  was  raking  corn 
stalks  with  an  ox  team  and  only  had  a  plank  on  the  running  gears 
of  the  wagon  on  which  to  stand  and  operate  the  big  twelve  foot 
stalk  rake  with  a  lever.  A  dog  scared  the  oxen  and  they  ran, 
throwing  me  down  in  front  of  the  rake.  John  and  Thornton 
Hunter  and  Abe  Halterman  happened  to  be  passing  and  came 
to  my  rescue.     I  was  unhurt  but  badly  scared. 

BROTHER  AL  ACCUSED  OF  PASSING  COUNTERFEIT. 

Another  little  incident  might  be  mentioned.  My  brother 
Albert  had  come  from  Columbus,  Ind.  to  visit  us  in  the  summer 
of  1855.  The  latter  part  of  August  he  wanted  to  go  to  Rockford, 
111.,  where  Uncle  Josephus,  with  whom  he  lived,  had  moved  during 
his  visit  to  us.  It  fell  to  my  lot  to  take  him  horseback  to  Pana, 
a  place  we  had  never  been  and  which  was  a  small  hamlet  on  the 
Illinois  Central.  We  took  a  bee  line  for  what  we  supposed  was  the 
location  of  Pana.  Our  route  was  through  the  trackless  prairie, 
with  no  object  in  front  to  guide  us,  but  we  found  Pana.  The 
ticket  office  was  in  the  old  freight  house  near  where  Penwell's 
coal  mine  is.  Albert  bade  me  good  bye  and  went  to  get  his 
ticket  and  I  started  back  home,  leading  the  horse  he  had  ridden. 
I  had  scarcely  arrived  home  and  gotten  down  to  a  late  dinner 
when  in  walked  Albert,  carrying  his  valise  and  soaked  with 
perspiration  from  head  to  foot.  O.  H.  Paddock  was  the  I.  C. 
ticket  agent  and  drunk  as  a  loon.  (He  afterwards  reformed  and 
became  a  strong  temperance  worker  and  Sunday  school  man.) 
V/hen  Albert  handed  Paddock  a  ten  dollar  bill  (state  money)  Pad- 
dock pronounced  it  a  counterfeit  and  started  as  though  he  was 
going  to  get  an  officer  to  arrest  him.  Albert  took  time  by  the  fore- 
lock, skipped  out  over  the  prairie  afoot  and  very  nearly  beat  me 
home.  Plis  visit  v/as  protracted  somewhat  longer,  much  to  my 
delight. 

The  farmers  had  no  means  of  transporting  their  stock 
and  produce  to  St.  Louis,  the  nearest  market,  except  to  drive 
their  stock  and  haul  their  grain.  After  driving  their  hogs  to  St. 
Louis  they  would  only  get  about  2%  cents  a  pound  for  them. 
Wheat  was  worth  50  to  60  cents  and  corn  and  potatoes  could 
hardly  be  sold  for  10  cents  a  bushel.  This  condition  was  during 
the  "Wildcat  Currency"  period  (state  banks)  and  lasted  up  to  the 
civil  war,  when  state  bank  currency  was  superseded  by  the 
■"greenbacks,"  "shin  plasters"  and  all. 


A  DOUBLE  WEDDING  IN  1856. 

In  the  spring  of  1856  Henry  Mull  married  Mary  Hunter 
and  John  W.  Hunter  married  Martha  Vermillion.  It  was  a  double 
wedding  at  the  Hunter  home.  Mull  built  a  little  home  in 
1858  just  a  mile  north  and  three  quarters  east  of  where  we  now 
lived  (in  the  brick).  In  1859,  after  Mother  Hunter's  death,  Re- 
becca Hunter  went  to  live  v/ith  Mull's.  I  mention  this  fact  now 
to  show  how  fate  shaped  our  destines. 

The  improvement  of  our  new  farm  and  trying  to  raise  and 
hai-\'est  crops  to  keep  things  going  kept  us  busy  and  I  learned 
what  hard  work  meant.  While  living  in  the  Overholt  house  near 
the  Buckeye  school  house  I  was  enabled  to  attend  school  one  full 
term.  When  we  moved  to  the  brick  it  became  different.  Our 
corn  had  to  be  gathered  before  I  could  start  to  school  and  that 
generally  took  us  till  New  Years.  I  then  would  have  only  two 
months  as  business  on  the  farm  began  generally  about  March 
first.  But  I  made  most  of  my  time  and  thought  little  of  my  two 
and  a  half  mile  walk  through  storm  and  sunshine  over  the  bleak 
prairie  to  get  a  common  school  education.  There  was  often  a 
"silver  lining"  to  the  cloud,  however.  Rebecca  (I  now  called  her 
Bettie)  Hunter  was  spared  part  of  the  time  from  the  hard  work 
of  the  Mull  home  to  attend  school  at  Buckeye  and  on  such  occasions 
we  would  generally  walk  to  and  from  school  together.  She  was 
then  a  buxom,  mischevious,  beautiful  girl,  merging  into  her  teens. 
My  last  term  of  school  at  Buckeye  was  in  the  winter  of  1860-61. 
That  fall  I  started  to  college  at  Normal  where  I  attended  two 
years.  During  the  winter  of  1862-3  I  contracted  catarrahal  fe-ver 
and  lay  sick  in  our  boarding  house  room  with  no  one  to  look  after 
me  except  my  roommate,  Bacon,  a  senior,  when  he  was  home  from 
school.  I  was  too  poor  to  hire  a  nurse  or  attendant.  This  sickness 
and  my  subsequent  effort  to  bring  up  my  grades  so  broke  my 
health  that  when  the  spring  term  closed  I  went  home  a  mere 
skeleton,  and  never  returnd  to  Normal. 

UNITED  IN  MARRIAGE. 

August  1863  the  wedding  of  myself  and  Rebecca  Hunter 
took  place  at  the  home  of  Henry  L.  Mull  at  nine  o'clock  on  a 
beautiful  Sunday  morning.  Rev.  D.  P.  Lyon  was  the  officiating 
minister.  The  wedding  was  a  quite  one,  only  the  immediate 
friends  being  present.  It  was  at  9  o'clock  in  the  morning  so  that 
we  could  attend  church  services  at  Buckeye — the  observed  of 
all  observers.  Rev.  Lyon  let  us  ride  in  his  top  buggy,  the  only  one 
at  hand.  So  we  went  "in  state"  for  it  was  our  only  honeymoon 
trip.  The  minister  rode  with  Mulls  to  "church"  in  the  big  wagon 
and  returned  with  them  to  the  wedding  dinner  which  Mary  and 
her  assistants  had  prepared  for  us. 


From  1855  up  to  1864  or  5  there  were  no  carriages  in  the 
community  and  of  course,  automobiles  were  undreamed  of.  Peo- 
ple either  rode  to  church  or  town  in  big  wagons  with  board  seats, 
some  drawn  by  oxen,  rode  horse  back  or  walked.  It  was  no  un- 
common thing  to  see  us  young  fellows  with  our  best  girls  rid- 
ing behind  us  horseback,  especially  to  parties  or  dances.  It  v/as 
about  this  time,  1857  to  '60  that  street  cars,  propelled  by  horses 
or  mules,  were  first  run  in  the  cities.  These  were  in  time  replaced 
by  the  cable  cars  and  these  later  by  the  splendid  electric  system  in 
vogue  today,  1917. 

MY  FIRST  SCHOOL. 

Beginning  with  our  marriage,  life  became  very  real  to  my 
young  wife  and  me  in  our  struggle  to  build  a  home.  That  fall 
we  began  life  in  a  little  two  room  brick  house  v/hich  I  had  built 
on  an  eighty  acres  of  land  adjoining  Uncle  Joshua's  that  I  had 
purchased  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  for  $12  an 
acre.  In  Septmeber  I  began  teaching  my  first  term  of  school  at 
"Locust,"  one  fourth  of  a  mile  north  of  where  Owaneco  now 
stands.  It  was  in  an  old  log  school  house,  almost  chinkless,  heat- 
ed by  a  stove  long  enough  to  take  in  a  piece  of  cord  wood.  There 
was  no  blackboard  and  the  seating  was  a  very  primitive  sort.  How- 
ever, we  had  a  large  school  and  closed  it  the  following  spring  with 
what  was  said  to  be  one  of  the  best  exhibitions  ever  held  in  that 
section  of  the  country,  and  they  were  quite  common  then.  Dur- 
ing September,  October  and  part  of  November  I  walked  that  five 
miles  to  school  and  back  but,  the  weather  becoming  rugged  and 
bad,  my  little  wife  v/ent  to  Mull's  to  stay  and  I  boarded  with  Dry- 
den  Vermillion's  near  the  school  house,  always  going  to  Mull's 
Friday  night  and  staying  till  Monday  morning.  Christmas  day  was 
warm  and  beautiful  but  the  day  before  New  Years  a  blizzard  set 
in  and  a  foot  of  snow  fell  and  drifted  the  snow  in  many  places 
several  feet  high.  New  Years  day  was  the  coldest  I  have  ever 
known  since  coming  to  Illinois.  The  mercury  went  down  to  32  be- 
low zero.  That  night  turkeys  and  young  chickens  and  young  stock 
froze  to  death.  It  was  on  Friday  and  we  were  to  have  a  treat  that 
day.  That  brought  about  all  the  scholars  to  school,  but  we  could 
do  little  but  stand  around  the  stove  and  almost  freeze.  Few  reci- 
tations were  heard.  That  evening  I  started  to  walk  to  Mull's, 
much  against  the  advice  of  friends  who  said  I  could  never  wade 
the  drifts  and  would  freeze  to  death.  After  two  hours  of  v/ading 
snow,  climbing  or  plunging  through  snow  drifts,  puffing  and  blow- 
ing, I  reached  Mvill's,  much  to  their  surprise  and  joy.  The  very 
exercise  saved  me.  That  night,  January  1st,  18G4,  was  so  cold  in 
the  South  that  our  soldiers  nearly  froze. 

Before  my  school  was  out  our  first  baby  girl.  Lulu,  was 
born  at  the  Mull  home.     Other  children  followed  in  due  time,  as 


follows:  Minnie  in  Spring  of  1866,  at  the  old  Hunter  home  where 
we  were  living  after  our  return  from  Princeton;  Ara,  Jan.  1868, 
in  the  old  Foley  house  in  Rosemond  where  I  was  clerking  in  the 
Copeland  store;  Willie  in  November  1869,  in  our  new  home  on 
the  school  section  in  Rosemond  township;  Ira  in  the  white  house 
near  Uncle  Joshua's  in  1875  and  Jessie  in  August  1876  at  the 
same  place. 

THE  OLD  SHERMAN  SCHOOL. 

In  1864  the  Sherman  school  district  in  which  I  lived  was 
organized  and  the  building  of  an  up-to-date  school  house  was  be- 
gun but  v/as  not  finished  till  late  the  follov/ing  winter.  In  the 
meantime  I  was  employed  to  teach  the  first  term  in  that  district. 
I  taught  the  school  in  the  front  room  of  our  own  little  brick  house. 
I  had  about  thirty  scholars.  How  we  housed  them  I  never  can  tell. 
Wife  and  I  would  take  the  furniture  out  in  the  morning  and  fix 
temporary  benches  for  the  scholars.  The  bed  formed  a  receptacle 
for  their  wi'aps.  It  was  quite  a  successful  school  in  spite  of  this 
handicap.  Among  those  who  attended  this  school  were  Nettie 
and  Will  Mull,  Dow  Mull,  Billy,  Cal  and  Laura  Hunter,  Fred  and 
Charlie  Ebert,  Albert  Young  and  others. 

A  MERCHANDISING  VENTURE. 

February  1865,  I  sold  my  farm  for  $35  an  acre  and  de- 
cided to  move  to  Chicago  where  I  shipped  our  goods  but  finding 
the  city  too  big  for  me  and  myself  too  much  of  a  greenhorn  or 
"country  jake"  to  combat  the  wiles  of  the  city  I  decided,  after  a 
two  weeks  stay  in  the  city,  to  go  to  Princeton,  Bureau  County,  111., 
where  my  wife  had  stopped  off  on  a  visit  to  her  uncles  and  cousins, 
the  Rosses,  on  North  Prairie,  ten  miles  north  of  Princeton.  Through 
the  influence  of  Uncle  Jimmie  Ross,  who  was  a  wealthy  patron  of 
the  store,  I  secured  a  position  in  Chris  Stoner's  store,  situated  near 
the  depot  and  the  largest  dry  goods  store  in  Princeton.  There 
were  nine  clerks,  all  Germans  but  Bob  Oakford  and  I.  I  learned 
the  trade  rapidly  and  v/as  offered  quite  an  advance  when  I  quit 
the  store  in  the  fall  to  join  my  brother,  who  had  been  discharged 
from  the  army  after  three  years  service,  and  had  come  to  Prince- 
ton with  George  Knox  to  purchase  another  dry  goods  store  of 
Dr.  Mercer,  who  wanted  to  quit.  The  new  firm  was  Knox  &  Lakin 
and  although  we  soon  built  up  a  big  trade  it  was  on  the  heels  of 
the  war  and  all  kinds  of  goods  declined  in  prices  so  rapidly  that  it 
proved  a  losing  venture.  In  the  spring  of  1866  I  sold  my  interest 
in  the  store  to  Knox  and  my  brother,  they  assuming  all  liabilities, 
and  wife  and  I  moved  back  to  Buckeye  to  begin  life  over  again. 

That  summer  I  farmed  the  old  Hunter  place  and  the  fol- 
lowing winter  I  taught  school  at  Buckeye.    In  the  Spring  of  1867, 


we  moved  to  Rosemond  where  I  clerked  in  Copeland's  store.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  of  1867-8  I  bought  eighty  acres  of  raw  land  on 
school  section  16  in  Rosemond  township  and  built  a  comfortable 
story  and  a  half  frame  house  into  which  we  moved  in  the  Spring 
of  1868  when  my  year  was  up  with  Copeland.  I  broke  the  entire 
eighty  myself  and  was  doing  quite  well  in  the  crop  line  when  in 
the  Spring  of  1870  Uncle  Joshua  persuaded  me  to  sell  the  farm 
and  move  down  on  to  his  land  so  as  to  be  near  them  in  their  old 
age. 

A  LONG  TEACHING  RECORD. 

In  1868  the  Grant  school  district  was  organized,  a  school 
house  was  built  and  I  was  employed  to  teach  the  first  term.  In 
1869-70,  because  of  a  rupture  with  county  superintendent  Gorrell, 
I  refused  to  teach  the  second  term  at  Grant  and  Dias  Butts  was 
employed,  he  boarding  at  our  house.  Billy  Hunter  also  stayed 
with  us  that  winter  and  went  to  school  to  Dias.  It  was  a  pleasant 
winter  for  us  all.  I  taught  the  next  two  terms,  1870-'71  and 
1871-'72  at  Grant,  riding  from  our  home  on  Uncle's  place. 

In  the  spring  of  1870  we  moved  in  with  Uncle  Joshua's  and 
took  care  of  his  place  while  he  and  aunt  visited  in  Ohio  and  while 
our  new  house  was  being  built.  In  the  fall  we  moved  into  our 
new  hom.e  and  were  happy  again. 

My  subsequent  teaching  record  is  as  follows:  Sherman 
1872-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-80,  Durbin  1880-1-2-3,  Buckeye  1883-4-5-6, 
Sherman  1886-7-8-9-90,  Pike  1891-92-93.  March  29,  1893  closed 
our  career  on  Buckeye  Prairie  when  we  moved  to  Vandalia. 

SOME  OBSERVATIONS  IN  PASSING. 

In  these  memoirs  I  have  not  attempted  to  follow  a  strict 
chronology,  but  have  followed  each  line  of  thought  to  an  approx- 
imate finality.  A  few  observations  relative  to  the  period  up  to 
our  leaving  the  farm  may  not  be  out  of  order.  Farm  life  in  those 
days  was  a  pretty  strenuous  life,  devoid  of  the  many  advantages 
enjoyed  by  the  rural  population  today.  True  the  mower  had  sup- 
erseded the  scythe ;  the  reaper,  binder  and  header  had  taken  the 
place  of  the  cradle  and  sickle ;  the  hay  rake  and  hay  stacker  had 
made  the  hay  harvest  easier  and  speedier  than  the  old  hand-rake 
and  pitchfork,  but  we  had  no  telephones  for  rapid  transmission  of 
news  or  gossip  and  if  a  doctor  was  needed  in  a  hurry  a  messenger 
had  to  be  sent  for  him,  often  having  to  ride  miles;  no  rural  mail 
delivery  furnished  our  mail  daily  and  often  a  postoffiee  was  miles 
away  and  daily  papers  because  of  the  delay  in  getting  mail  were 
practically  out  of  the  question;  no  pianos,  graphphones  or  vic- 
trolas,  the  last  two  unthought  of  as  yet,  graced  the  homes  to  fur- 
nish music  from  the  masters  and  enliven  the  long  winter  even- 


ings,  the  violin  and  guitar  supplying  the  need  and  occasionaly  an 
organ  could  be  found  in  the  better  homes  and  such  a  thing  as  an 
automobile  was  deemed  an  impossibility  if  thought  of  at  all.  Yet 
despite  these  handicaps  we  farmers  were  happy  and  moderately 
prosperous. 

October  26,  1886,  a  deep  sorrow  came  to  our  families  in 
the  death  of  Leroy  Hunter  who  was  killed  at  a  Republican  Rally 
in  Taylorville  by  a  drunken  wretch  named  Donner.  I  happened 
to  have  been  drawn  on  the  grandjury  that  indicted  Donner.  He 
was  tried,  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  fourteen  years  in  the 
penitentiary. 

In  August  1887  Aunt  Katie  Pepper,  who  had  been  stricken 
with  paralysis  in  November  previous,  died,  aged  87  years  and 
Uncle  Joshua  came  to  live  with  us. 

In  August  1856  my  father,  v/ho  lived  in  Portland,  Ore.,  and 
whom  I  had  not  seen  since  1851,  came  to  visit  us  and  stayed  a 
month.  An  unusual  coincidence  may  be  mentioned  in  this  con- 
nection. In  1865  while  visiting  him  in  Normal  my  grandfather, 
Thomas  Lakin,  nursed  our  first  born,  his  great  granddaughter, 
Lulu.  In  1886  father  nursed  Lulu's  first  born,  his  great  grand- 
daughter, Leela,  and  in  1P06  I  nursed  Leela's  first  born,  my  great 
granddaughter,  Eleanor,  thus  completing  the  line. 

A  VISIT  WITH  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

In  October  1860,  Uncle  Joshua  and  I  and  a  neigPibor  named 
Gerrarhity,  an  Irishman,  of  course,  made  a  trip  in  a  wagon  over- 
land to  Jacksonville  to  attend  the  state  fair  which  was  held  there. 
On  our  return  trip  we  stopped  in  Springfield  to  call  on  Abraham 
Lincoln,  Republican  candidate  for  President.  We  found  him  alone 
in  his  office  and  he  treated  us  very  cordially.  The  other  two  were 
Democrats  but  I  was  leaning  toward  Republicanism.  Mr.  Lincoln 
expressed  himself  as  quite  confidant  of  his  election  in  November 
following.  Before  we  left  Mr.  Lincoln  placed  his  hand  on  my 
head  with  his  blessing  and  said  he  hoped  that  I  would  grow  up  to 
be  an  honorable  and  manly  man.  I  have  tried  to  justify  his  hope. 
I  was  only  18  past  and  could  not  vote  for  Mr.  Lincoln  then  but  in 
1864  I  voted  for  him  good  and  hard  and  have  never  since  departed 
from  the  principles  which  he  advocated.  The  rag  baby  craze,  the 
"free  silver"  movement,  or  the  Populistic  propaganda  never  had 
any  influence  over  me. 

In  1867  the  B.  &  O.  railroad,  then  called  the  "Springfield 
&  Southeastern,"  running  from  Springfield  to  Shav/neetown 
through  Taylorville  and  Pana,  was  completed  and  Owaneco  and 
Millersville  were  founded.  This  made  much  closer  and  more 
convenient  markets  for  the  Buckeye  farmers'  produce  and  closer 
postofiices  for  their  mail. 


WE  MOVE  TO  VANDALIA. 

March  29th,  1893,  after  thirty-eight  years  of  farm  life,  we 
moved  to  Vandalia  and  from  that  time  to  the  present,  January 
1917,  my  life  has  been  a  very  contented  and  happy  one,  as  well 
as  a  moderately  prosperous  one.  I  had  previously  purchased  The 
Vandalia  Union  and  Ira  D.,  then  a  lad  of  eighteen  summers,  as- 
sumed the  control  of  the  paper  March  10,  till  I,  with  the  rest 
of  the  family,  could  arrive.  None  of  us  knew  anything  about 
running  a  newspaper,  but  fortunately  we  had  a  good  editor  and 
foreman  in  Angus  Wahl,  for  four  months  and  Ira  learned  the 
printer's  art  rapidly.  The  next  year  Jesse  L.  became  a  partner 
in  the  firm  of  Lakin  &  Sons  and  to  those  two  noble  boys  and  to 
Norman  Jones,  who  is  now  a  member  of  the  firm  is  due  largely 
the  wonderful  success  of  the  paper. 

In  1895  I  built  our  delightful  home  in  which  we  still  hap- 
pily and  comfortably  live. 

In  1907  I  received  the  appointment  of  United  States  Bank 
receiver  from  Comptroller  Ridgely,  through  the  efforts  of  Shelby 
M.  Cullom,  Congressman  Dickson,  J.  J.  Brown  and  L.  L.  Emer- 
son, as  a  sort  of  postoffice  contest  compromise  and  in  March  1908 
had  orders  to  leave  at  once  for  Bisbee,  Ariz.,  to  take  charge  of  the 
First  National  Bank  which  had  failed.  Here  my  wife  and  I  spent 
two  pleasant  years.  Within  three  months  of  my  arrival  there  I 
was  elected  superintendent  of  the  Methodist  Sunday  School  and 
within  six  months  was  elected  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Y.M.C.A. 
both  of  which  positions  I  held  until  my  departure  for  home  in 
February  1910,  having  closed  the  receivership. 


DEATH  INVADES  THE  HOME. 

April  3,  1909  occurred  the  death  of  our  beloved  son-in-law, 
Isaac  G.  Law  at  their  home  in  Milton,  Kan.  He  was  brought  here 
for  burial  and  lies  in  the  Lakin-Law  lot  in  South  Hill  cemetery, 
the  first  of  our  immediate  family  to  be  laid  away,  except  our  lit- 
tle granddaughter,  Mabel  Robinson,  who  died  in  the  winter  of 
1894-5.  After  his  death  Minnie,  his  widow,  and  daughter  Mar- 
cella,  as  soon  as  arrangements  could  be  made,  came  to  live  with 
us  and  have  ever  since  remained  in  the  home  to  bless  it  with  their 
congenial  presence.  Jun  29,  1913,  the  grim  monster  removed  our 
beloved  oldest  son,  V^'^ill  G.,  after  an  operation  in  Peoria  for  can- 
cer of  the  stomach.  This  broke  for  the  first  time  our  own  family 
circle  of  beloved  children  and  was  a  sore  bereavement. 

Upon  our  arrival  in  Vandalia  we  immediately  placed  our 
church  letters  with  the  First  M.  E.  church  and  became  active 
members  of  the  Sunday  School  in  which  I  was  soon  made  a  teach- 
er of  the  young  men's  class.    In  that  class  among  others  were  Jolin 


W.  Schenker,  Gus  Walter,  John  Bolin  and  J.  R.  Myers.  In  the 
spring  of  1896  I  was  elected  Assistant  Superintendent  of  the  Sun- 
day School  and  served  seven  years  in  that  capacity  with  John  J. 
Brown  as  Superintendent.  At  the  April  board  meeting  in  1903 
I  was  elected  Superintendent  of  the  Sunday  School,  in  which  ca- 
pacity I  served  five  years  or  until  my  departure  for  Bisbee.  In 
1913  I  was  again  elected  superintendent  and  served  two  years,  re- 
tiring because  of  increasing  age. 

In  the  fall  of  1893,  though  just  a  new  comer,  I  was  elected 
county  president  of  the  Sunday  School  Association  and  served 
three  years.  Among  those  who  accompanied  me  most  frequently, 
besides  my  wife,  to  the  different  township  conventions  were  the 
late  lamented  W.  M.  Fogler  and  his  talented  wife. 

On  St.  Patrick's  day  1898,  the  old  First  Methodist  church 
was  destroyed  by  fire.  This  entailed  the  building  of  the  present 
church  edifice  on  the  site  of  the  old  church.  During  this  priod  I 
was  a  member  of  the  board  of  Trustees  and  its  financial  secretary. 
No  money  could  be  paid  out  for  the  construction  of  the  church, 
which  cost  $26,000,  without  my  signature.  During  the  building 
of  the  church  which  was  completed  in  1900  the  church  services 
and  Sunday  School  were  held  in  the  Armory  Hall. 

August  9,  1913,  was  our  golden  wedding  anniversary,  but 
owing  to  the  recent  death  of  our  beloved  son.  Will,  v/e  could  not 
celebrate  it  as  we  would  have  liked  with  all  our  children  in  the 
home,  but  our  children,  ever  thoughtful  of  our  pleasure  as  well 
as  our  needs,  supplied  us  with  a  purse  of  gold  and  sent  us  on  an 
extended  visit  with  our  daughter  Lulu  in  Indianapolis,  with  my 
nephew,  Phil  Palmer,  in  Kokomo,  Ind.,  and  with  our  granddaugh- 
ter Leela  and  little  granddaughter  Eleanor  in  Chicago  which  we 
greatly  enjoyed  and  shall  never  forget. 


MASONIC  AFFILIATION. 

Thus  far  I  have  not  mentioned  my  Masonic  relations.  I 
was  made  a  Master  Mason  in  Pana  Lodge  No.  226  in  1867.  I 
became  a  charter  member  of  Locust  Lodge,  No.  673  in  1874  and 
filled  all  the  chairs  and  was  finally  elected  Worshipful  Master 
and  served  in  that  capacity  for  four  years,  rarely  ever  missing  a 
meeting  though  I  had  to  go  five  miles. 

In  1870  I  was  made  a  Royal  Arch  Mason  in  Pana  chapter. 
Coming  to  Vandalia  I  immediately  affiliated  with  Temperance 
Lodge  and  Vandalia  chapter.  I  filled  all  the  chairs  in  the  lodge 
but  W.  M.  which  I  refused  to  accept,  also  nearly  all  the  chairs  in 
the  chapter  and  also  served  two  years  as  High  Priest. 

Melrose  Chapter  O.E.S.  v/as  organized  the  night  v/e  ar- 
rived here  by  a  Pana  team  but  wife  and  I  did  not  join  till  in  the 
fall.    I  served  one  term  as  Worthy  Patron. 


OUR  SERIOUS  ILLNESS. 

Soon  after  our  return  from  Bisbee  in  1910  my  wife  took 
seriously  ill  and  lay  for  six  weeks  in  a  precarious  condition,  but 
by  careful  nursing  by  the  nurse  Miss  Henninger  and  medical 
treatment  by  Dr.  Moray  she  ultimately  pulled  through.  Again  in 
February  1916,  she  and  I  were  taken  with  the  grip  and  she  suf- 
fered from  tonsilitis.  She  just  began  to  recover  from  this  when 
she  took  the  smallpox,  contracted  while  caring  for  the  poor  Smith 
family.  The  attack  was  a  mild  one  but  it  kept  her,  Minnie  and 
I  in  quarantine  for  six  weeks.  In  August  following  my  wife  was 
again  taken  seriously  ill  and  came  near  dying  but  is  about  herself 
again,  January  1917.  My  spell  of  grip  in  February  resulted  in 
an  attack  of  diabetes  and  in  less  than  six  months  I  lost  over  forty 
pounds  in  flesh  from  the  disease  and  starvation  diet.  September 
13,  the  day  of  the  primary,  I  was  taken  down  with  an  aggravated 
case  of  bowel  trouble  and  wife  and  I  both  lay  seriously  ill  at  the 
same  time.  It  was  then  that  our  dear  children  here  showed  their 
love  for  and  devotion  to  us  by  their  kind  and  merciful  ministra- 
tions. We  needed  no  other  nurses.  I  am  still  suffering  from  the 
diabetes  and  a  growth  in  my  side  or  bowels  which  may  need  a 
surgical  operation.  What  the  end  may  be  I  cannot  tell,  but  I  am 
trying  to  be  very  patient  and  ready  for  whatever  may  occur. 

THE  MARRIAGES  OF  OUR  CHILDREN. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  in  closing  these  memoirs  to  mention 
the  marriages  of  our  children. 

Lulu,  our  first  born,  was  married  to  J.  M  .Robinson,  April 
17,  1884,  while  we  still  lived  on  the  farm.  They  went  immed- 
iately to  Janesville,  111.,  where  he  and  Dr.  Wilson  were  running 
a  drug  store.  Robinson  also  taught  school  there  and  later  on 
Buckeye.  In  October  1889  he  went  on  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
as  a  mail  clerk.  He  moved  to  Vandalia  that  fall  and  later  to 
Indianapolis  where  they  now  reside. 

Will  G.,  our  oldest  son,  was  the  next  to  jump  into  double 
harness.  He  was  married  October  19,  1892  to  Ida  May  Patter- 
son, daughter  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  Patterson.  The  wedding 
took  place  at  the  home  of  her  brother-in-law,  William  Hunter,  on 
Buckeye  Prairie.  They  continued  to  live  on  the  farm  for  several 
years,  spent  a  year  in  Canton,  Kan.,  and  then  came  to  Vandalia 
to  live.  He  was  mailing  clerk  in  the  postcffice  when  he  died  June 
29,  1913. 

Minnie  C.  was  married  to  Isaac  G.  Law  of  McPherson,  Kan., 
January  14,  1897.  The  wedding  was  celebrated  in  the  home  here 
and  they  immediately  departed  for  McPherson  where  Mr.  Law  was 
county  superintendent  of  schools  for  twelve  years.  His  health 
breaking  down,  they  moved  to  their  farm  in  Sumner  county.  Later 


they  moved  to  Milton,  Kan.,  where  he  became  postmaster  which 
position  he  held  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

Ira  D.  was  married  to  Nellie  Doyle,  daughter  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  H.  C.  Doyle,  September  10,  1899.  Little  Lakin  Robinson  and 
Hazel  Doyle  were  their  waiters.  The  same  evening  they  depart- 
ed for  McPherson,  Kan.,  on  their  honeymoon  trip.  They  located 
in  Vandalia  where  they  have  a  beautiful  home.  He  has  been  as- 
sociated vidth  the  Vandalia  Union  m.ore  or  less  ever  since  its  pur- 
chase, March  10,  1893  and  is  now,  upon  my  retirement,  editor  in 
chief  and  general  manager. 

Jesse  L.  was  married  to  Laurene  Wahl,  daughter  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Edward  Wahl,  May  14,  1902.  They  too,  took  their  honey- 
moon with  his  sister,  Mrs.  I.  G.  Law,  in  McPherson,  Kan.  He  has 
also  been  associated  with  the  Vandalia  Union  since  1894  and  is 
now  manager  of  the  business  and  mechanical  department  of  the 
paper  and  is  superintendent  of  the  Presbyterian  Sunday  School. 

It  remained  for  our  baby  girl,  Ara  Jeanette,  to  be  the  last 
to  launch  on  the  matrimonial  sea.  On  March  3,  1907,  she  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Adolph  Frederick  Prahm,  They  departed 
at  once  for  St.  Louis  where  he  was  emlpoyed  in  the  Hanlon  Mfg. 
plant.  They  are  now  living  happily  in  their  little  home  6130  Su- 
burban Ave.,  and  near  which  he  is  employed  in  the  Wagner  Elec- 
tric plant. 

Our  children  were  all  happily  married  and  there  are  no 
"in-laws"  in  our  family.  Those  coming  into  our  family  by  mar- 
riage have  so  endeared  themselves  to  us  that  they  seem  like  our 
very  own. 

For  over  fifty-three  years  wife  and  I  have  struggled  along 
together  always  happy  in  each  other's  love  and  always  hopeful 
for  the  best.  Beginning  life  with  comparatively  nothing  we  have 
cheerfully  braved  the  hardships  encountered  and  which  come  to 
most  people.  We  were  blessed  with  a  lovely  family  of  children 
and  our  ambition  always  was  to  give  them  the  best  we  could  under 
the  circumstances. 

We  have  been  amply  rewarded  in  the  warm  love  and  de- 
votion accorded  us  by  them  in  our  old  age.  Our  lives  have  been 
crowned  with  joy  and  happiness. 

T.  N.  LAKIN. 

Vandalia,  111.,  Jan.   18,   1917. 

The  End. 


jMcmori^L 


Thos.  N.  Lakin  died  at  his  home  on  North  First  street  in 
Vandalia,  Illinois,  Monday  evening,  March  19th,  1917,  at  five 
o'clock.  In  the  issue  of  The  Union  of  March  22nd  there  appeared 
a  brief  summary  of  his  life  and  the  account  of  his  death,  written 
by  his  son,  Ira  D.  Lakin,  from  w^hich  the  following  excerpts  are 
taken : 

"The  sword  of  the  Almighty  at  one  stroke  has  severed  the 
three-fold  tie  which  bound  father  and  sons,  business  associates, 
and  intimate  friends  and  companions.     We  have  lost  all  in  one. 

Only  the  consciousness  that  hundreds  of  sincere  friends  are 
grieving  with  us,  and  would  willingly  share  our  burden,  strength- 
ens us  at  this  hour.  The  written  word  is  a  weak  vehicle  for  the 
emotions  that  sweep  over  the  soul  and  flood  it  in  a  sea  of  inex- 
pressable  grief. 

In  the  death  of  our  father,  which  occurred  at  his  home  in 
this  city  Monday  evening  at  twenty  minutes  past  five,  this  com- 
munity has  lost  a  valuable  citizen,  the  wife  and  family  a  devoted 
and  loving  husband  and  father. 

His  whole  life  has  been  given,  freely  and  gladly,  to  the 
service  of  his  fellow-men  and  to  his  family.  We  cannot  under- 
stand why  his  last  illness,  which  extended  over  a  period  of  six 
months,  had  to  be  attended  with  such  extreme  suffering,  but  we 
remember  that  his  Christ  suffered,  and  our  father  bore  his  suffei"- 
ing  with  groat  Christian  fortitude  and  died  a  glorious  death,  sur- 
rounded, as  he  would  have  it,  by  his  loved  ones,  all. 

No  finer  tribute  could  be  paid  to  a  man  than  was  that  paid 
our  father  upon  the  occasion  of  his  funeral,  which  occurred  at  the 
First  Methodist  church  Wednesday  afternoon,  when  the  people  of 
this  town  and  community  so  generously  closed  their  places  of 
business  and  assembled  in  such  large  numbers  to  pay  their  last 
respects  to  his  memory. 

The  wonderfully  beautiful  flowers  offered  in  such  profusion 
symbolized  the  love  and  affection  of  his  hosts  of  friends.  The 
tender,  sympathetic  words  of  the  ministers.  Rev.  C.  D.  Shumard, 
Rev.  N.  Bascom  and  Rev.  S.  B.  Murray,  were  the  portrayal  of 
his  pure  life  and  character.  The  attendance  of  the  Masonic  fra- 
ternity, and  their  impressive  burial  service  were  the  highest  mark 
of  respect  that  could  be  paid  to  the  departed. 

No  words  of  our,  either  written  or  spoken,  will  be  adequate 
to  express  the  deep  appreciation  of  the  family  for  this  great  out- 
pouring of  sympathy  and  friendship  on  the  part  of  this  beloved 
people.     Perhaps  in  the  years  to  come  our  effort  to,  in  some  little 

degree,  emulate  his  example,  will  give  expression  of  this  gratitude, 

*  *  *  * 

Their  home  on  Buckeye  Prairie  was  the  center  oi  the  so- 


cial  life  of  the  community.  It  was  there  the  young  people  gath- 
ered on  many  a  joyous  occasion.  As  his  children  grew,  he  grew 
with  them.  He  shared  their  sorrows  and  their  joys.  Throughout 
his  life  he  had  the  rare  faculty  of  winning  and  holding  the  friend- 
ship and  love  of  children  and  of  finding  pleasure  in  their  pleasures. 
It  was  this  faculty  that  kept  his  heart  ever  young. 

His  home  life  and  his  devotion  to  wife  and  children  was 
beautiful  beyond  words  to  describe.  Rarely,  even  in  their  younger 
days  did  he  find  it  necessary  to  rule  by  harsh  word  or  method.  Love 
was  the  guiding  instinct  of  his  life. 

In  March  1893  he  came  to  Vandalia  and  took  possession 
of  the  Vandalia  Union,  having  leased  the  paper  from  J.  F.  Sayles, 
with  the  privilege  of  buying  it  at  the  end  of  the  year.  The  paper 
was  pui'chased  and  for  24  years  father  and  two  sons,  Ira  and 
Jesse,  have  continued  the  business,  having  associated  with  them 
Norman  F.  Jones,  who  they  trained  up  in  the  business. 

His  life  and  activities  here  are  as  an  open  book.  Interested 
always  in  every  public  enterprise  that  was  for  the  good  of  the 
community,  he  has  been  a  valuable  factor  in  molding  the  religious 
and  moral  life  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

He  served  his  Church  in  an  official  capacity  continuously 
and  was  superintendent  of  the  Sunday  School  for  several  years. 
He  was  president  of  the  County  Sunday  School  Association  for 
three  years. 

On  March  23,  1908  he  was  appointed  receiver  of  the  First 
National  Bank  of  Bisbee,  Ariz.,  and  with  his  wife  lived  there  two 
years  while  closing  up  the  affairs  of  that  institution.  He  had  on- 
ly been  there  three  weeks  when  he  was  made  a  teacher  of  the 
Woman's  Bible  Class  and  the  second  year  was  elected  superintend- 
ent of  the  Sunday  School  and  served  as  a  member  of  the  Board 
of  Directors  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  an  organization  of  1,000  members 
and  costing  $17,000  a  year  to  maintain. 

He  was  made  a  Mason  in  Pana  lodge  in  1867  and  two  years 
later  was  given  the  Royal  Arch  Degree. 

In  the  lodge  he  was  an  intelligent  and  leading  spirit.  In 
public  affaii's  his  counsel  was  much  sought  after  and  he  could  al- 
ways be  depended  upon  for  solid  and  helpful  advice.  In  his  church 
afliliation  he  had  that  deep  Christian  experience  and  lived  a  life 
that  reflected  an  influence  which  will  live  on  through  the  years  to 
come.  But  it  was  in  the  home,  with  his  family,  and  with  the 
friends  and  relatives  who  assembled  there,  that  the  svv^eetest  spirit 
was  manifest.  In  all  of  these  places  he  will  be  sadly,  sadly  missed." 

0—0—0—0 

FUNERAL  SERVICES. 

First  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Vandalia,  111. 
Officiating  Clergymen:   Rev.   C.   D.   Shumard,   Rev.   S.   B. 


"We  arrived  in  Taylorville  the  evening  of  October  22nd 
snd  stayed  all  night  with  Uncle  Albert  Pepper  who  had  pre- 
ceded us  to  Illinois  by  several  months.  Taylorville  at  that  time 
had  a  population  of  probably  1500  or  2000  souls  and  was  a  de- 
cidedly primitive  town.  I  don't  suppose  there  was  a  brick  side- 
walk in  the  town.  Concrete  walks  were  undreamed  of.  The  old 
frame  court  house  has  since  been  twice  superseded  by  brick  struc- 
tures, the  first  in  1855  and  the  last  in  the  early  nineties.  Few 
brick  houses  were  in  the  town  then,  and  the  old  Long  House  was 
the  principal  hostlery.  Stages  from  Shelbyville  to  Springfield 
afforded  means  of  travel.  The  Vandiveres,  the  Andersons  and 
the  Shumways  were  the  leading  families  and  were  quite  wealthy 
as  wealth  was  rated   then. 

BUCKEYE  PRAIRIE  A  SPARSELY  SETTLED  COMMUNITY. 

The  next  morning,  October  23rd,  we  drove  out  to  what 
was  already  known  as  Buckeye  Prairie,  a  distance  of  12  miles 
from  Taylorville  in  a  southerly  direction.  This  prairie  is  the 
southern  extremity  of  the  grand  prairie,  spoken  of  before,  reach- 
ing from  the  South  Fork  of  the  Sangamon  river  and  the  string  of 
mounds  extending  from  the  head  of  South  Fork  to  where  Pana 
now  stands,  to  nearly  Bloomington.  Here  we  found  B.  C.  Coch- 
ran and  family  located  in  a  two  room  frame,  unplastered  house, 
they  having  come  west  the  year  before.  The  house  was  on 
Jacob  Overholt's  land.  Only  two  other  houses  were  within  several 
miles.  Martin  Overholt  had  built  a  home  half  a  quarter  north- 
•east  of  the  Cochran  place  and  near  where  the  Buckeye  school 
house  now  stands.  John  McCune  and  family  occupied  a  new  one 
and  a  half  story  log  house  just  a  quarter  west  of  Cochran's.  Wm. 
Hunter  was  erecting  a  frame  house  on  his  land  one  mile  east. 
These  constituted  the  first  community  established  so  far,  five  miles, 
out  on  the  prairie,  as  all  the  earlier  settlers,  mostly  Tennesseeans, 
Kentuckians  and  Carolinans,  settled  along  the  timber  belts,  be- 
lieving the  prairies  could  never  be  tamed  and  settled,  and  were 
afraid  the  winds  would  blow  them  away  or  the  prairie  fires  would 
burn   them   up. 

The  Cochrans,  the  McCunes,  the  Overholts  v/ere  all  Buck- 
-eyes from  Tuscarawas  Coimty,  Ohio,  and  this  fact  gave  rise  to 
the  name  of  Buckeye  Prairie.  At  that  time  there  were  three  in 
the  Pepper  family,  four  in  the  Cochran  family  including  daugh- 
ter Amanda  and  son  Joshua  born  in  Ohio;  twelve  in  the  McCune 
family  including  seven  girls  and  three  boys;  six  in  the  Overholt 
family  including  four  boys,  James,  David,  Corwin  and  Orville, 
all  now  dead,  and  the  Hunter  family  who  moved  into  their  new 
home  from  near  Taylorville  in  the  early  part  of  the  wdntcr 
1854-5.      This   family   consisted    of   Mr.    and   Mrs.   Hunter,   four 


boys,  John,  Jacob,  William  and  Leroy  (the  baby)  and  four  girls, 
Mary,  Isabel,  Rebecca  and  Jane.  Thornton,  having  married 
Catherine  Priest  in  Ohio  did  not  come  to  Illinois  till  1856. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  in  the  winter  of  1854-5  our  little 
community  consisted  of  thirty-six  souls  all  old.  It  was  a  terribly 
cold  winter  and  the  snow  drifts  often  covered  the  stake  and  ridei'- 
ed  fences.  We  did  little  that  winter  but  visit.  We  had  to  haul 
our  wood  from  the  timber  five  miles  away. 

We  had  shipped  our  goods  via  the  railroad  to  Terre  Haute, 
that  being  the  terminus  of  the  east  and  west  railroad  line,  and 
Philip  Baker  and  B.  C.  Cochran  hauled  them  from  there  in 
wagons,  taking  them  about  a  week  to  make  the  trip. 

The  Terre  Haute  and  Alton  (now  part  of  the  Big  Four) 
was  not  completed  through  till  1857.  The  Illinois  Central  had 
been  graded  but  the  track  was  not  laid  through  Pana  till  in  De- 
cember 1854.  Pana  then  consisted  of  only  a  few  shanties,  a  store, 
post  office,  small  hotel  near  the  railroad  crossing,  the  station  and 
freight  depot.  Rosemond,  on  the  T.  H.  and  A.  railroad,  was 
founded  by  B.  R.  Hawley  in  1857  and  settled  almost  entirely  by 
Yankees. 

Returning  to  our  little  Buckeye  colony  and  our  new  life 
on  the  prairie  many  unique  and  interesting  things  recur  to  my 
mind.  I  had  been  used  to  the  big  hills,  the  fertile  valleys  and 
plains,  the  rivers,  creeks  and  heavily  wooded  lands  of  old  Tus- 
carawas county.  I  had  been  used  to  the  gathering  of  chestnuts, 
beech  nuts,  walnuts,  butternuts,  elderberries,  and  huckleberries, 
("Oh,  those  huckleberry  pies.").  I  had  been  used  to  swimming 
in  the  beautiful  river  or  meandering  with  my  playmates  through 
the  woods,  to  watching  the  canal  boats  as  they  plied  their  course 
through  the  locks  or  on  the  placid  waters,  propelled  by  a  horse 
or  two  on  the  tow  path,  attached  to  a  long  rope.  I  had  been  used 
to  town  life  and  all  that  that  implies,  but  now  all  that  was 
changed.  Before  and  around  us  lay  the  boundless  rolling 
prairies,  no  rivers,  no  vales,  no  woods,  just  prairie,  but  it  was 
ever  changing.  In  springtime  a  mass  of  green,  in  summer  time 
a  garden  of  flowers,  in  fall  covered  with  tall  grass  and  rosin 
weeds  of  endless  variety,  and  in  the  later  fall  and  early  winter 
scenes  of  indescribable  beauty  were  beheld  when  great  seas  of 
prairie  fires  swept  over  its  surface,  threatening  destruction  to 
everything  before  them.  At  night  these  prairie  fires  were  gi'andly 
imposing  and  beautiful,  as  well  as  terrible  to  look  upon.  Against 
these  prairie  fires  our  only  portection  was  to  back  fi.re.  This 
was  done  by  plowing  several  furrov/s  around  our  homes,  and  hay 
stacks  and  then  starting  fires  outside  these  furrows  against  the 
wind. 

Only  once  in  a  while  could  a  big  cottonwood  tree  be 
seen  standing  like  a  solitary  sentinel,  and  guiding  the  traveler 


And  in  that  larger  sphere  of  touch  with  mankind  he  has  proved 
Just  as  true  to  the  cause  of  what  a  christian  man  should  be  as 
he  has  in  his  sphere  of  Sunday  School  and  church  work. 

There  is  another  phase  of  life;  that  tender  phase;  that 
close  intimate  relationship  that  I  almost  hesitate  to  enter.  It 
seems  almost  as  though  it  was  holy  ground  upon  which  you  and 
I  should  not  tread.  You  know  I  refer  to  the  home  life,  to  the 
family  life  of  our  brother.  As  was  said  to  me  by  Brother  Bas- 
com  as  we  were  coming  from  the  house  here,  that  scarcely  had 
he  ever  known  a  home  more  affectionate  than  this  was,  at  which 
each  one  seemed  to  vie  with  the  other  in  striving  to  take  his  place 
and  do  his  part  and  be  the  one  in  that  home  that  he  should  be. 
I  did  not  wonder.  It  was  no  surprise  to  me  as  we  stood  beside 
the  casket  in  the  home  just  a  little  while  ago,  the  outbreak  of 
sorrow,  subdued,  but  yet  the  more  intense  because  it  was  subdued, 
of  the  loved  ones,  and  heard  the  cry  well  up  from  heart  to  heart, 
how  he  loved  us,  how  he  loved  us.  It  was  not  strange.  It  would 
have  been  strange  if  we  had  not  heard  that.  With  his  whole  heart 
centered  upon  that  home  circle  and  with  the  wife  and  children 
that  made  it  up  it  would  have  been  strange,  and  yet  when  the 
words  were  first  used  the  thought  came  to  me  when  they  said,  how 
he  loved  us,  no  more  than  you  loved  him,  and  just  a  moment  later 
the  daughter  used  that  expression,  how  we  loved  him.  And  his 
life  was  given  to  them,  just  as  he  gave  his  life  to  Jesus  Christ 
through  all  the  years,  just  as  he  gave  his  life  to  the  church  that 
he  loved  so  much,  just  as  he  put  the  whole  of  his  manhood  into  it, 
so  he  put  all  of  the  sanctified  manhood  into  the  care,  and  inter- 
est, and  love,  and  welfare  of  the  home  that  meant  so  much  to  him. 

I  leave  you  there  dear  friends.  I  would  not  say  more.  I 
only  ask  you  that  you  cherish  the  love  of  the  Father.  Not  the 
father  that  lies  in  the  casket;  that  is  only  the  form.  The  father 
whose  spirit  has  v/ended  its  way  and  is  at  the  right  hand  of  the 
throne  of  God  today.  That  you  look  away  from  this  time  of  sor- 
rov/  to  that  glad  time  of  rejoicing  that  will  come  to  you  just  a 
little  while  off. 

We  have  a  num.ber  of  brothers  with  us  today.  Brothers  of 
the  Masonic  Order.  A  good  many  years  ago  he  became  one  of 
your  number,  pressed  his  way  on  up  until  he  had  taken  the  Royal 
Arch  Degree  and  you  are  here  out  of  respect  and  veneration  and 
love  for  this  brother  who  has  passed  on.  I  look  into  your  faces 
today  brother  Masons.  I  know  something  of  the  teachings  of 
your  Order.  I  know  what  it  means  to  listen  to  the  words  of  those 
lectures  fraught  v/ith  so  much  meaning,  and  so  much  power  and  so 
much  influence;  I  know  your  teachings.  I  v/ant  to  say  to  you 
that  they  meant  to  our  brother  what  they  did  mean  because  first 
he  had  accepted  Jesus  Christ  as  his  Savioi%  and  the  teachings  of 
Masonary  simply  came  and  seconded  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ 


in  the  heart  of  this  Brother  of  ours  to  make  him  the  man  that  he 
has  proven  himself  to  be  during  all  the  years.  And  brother  Ma- 
sons I  recommend  to  you  today  the  very  foundation  of  his  char- 
acter, Jesus  Christ  as  your  Lord.  I  love  the  teachings  of  Mason- 
ary;  I  venerate  all  that  it  means,  but  brothers,  it  means  what  it 
does  mean  to  me  today  because  of  vi^hat  Jesus  Christ  is  to  me,  and 
you  will  understand  the  teachings  of  Masonary  and  it  will  mean 
more  to  you  than  it  could  mean  to  you  otherwise,  if  you  will  only 
take  Jesus  as  your  Lord,  as  your  Savior.  Let  him  be  the  founda- 
tion and  then  let  the  teachings  of  your  beloved  order  come  in 
and,  resting  upon  that  sure  foundation,  make  of  you  the  man  that 
he  was,  in  whose  honor  we  speak  today. 

The  next  verse  continues  to  say,  you  know  where  it  says,  "I 
have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  the  course,  I  have  kept 
the  faith,  and  because  of  this  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me 
a  crown  of  righteousness  which  the  Righteous  Judge  shall  give 
me  that  day." 

Oh,  brother,  without  any  question,  without  any  thought 
otherv/ise,  our  brother  has  received  from  the  hand  of  that  Judge 
Eternal,  that  crown,  because  of  a  finished  course,  and  a  kept 
faith,  and  a  life  that  was  loyal  to  him.  Dear  Sister,  dear  children, 
dear  friends  and  neighbors,  dear  brother  Masons,  emulate  his  life, 
and  God's  blessing  be  upon  you. 

TRIBUTE  BY  REV.  S.  B.  MURRAY. 

When  it  was  suggested  that  I  should  say  a  word  this  after- 
noon I  hesitated.  First  of  all  because  a  life  is  more  eloquent  al- 
ways than  a  speech  and  to  me  nothing  more  befitting  the  presence 
of  death  than  silence,  that  our  hearts  may  speak  and  also  that  our 
ears  may  listen  while  God  is  speaking,  and  I  have  wanted  so  many 
times,  and  this  afternoon  I  have  wanted  to  simply  sit  and  think, 
knowing  that  in  my  thoughts  I  would  surely  hear  the  voice  of  the 
infinite  speaking,  and  again  I  hesitated  because  I  wanted  this 
afternoon  to  sit  as  a  friend  who  had  lost  a  friend,  for  such  was 
this  man  to  me,  and  anything  that  I  may  say  v/ill  simply  be  a 
tribute  of  a  friend  to  a  friend.  Oh,  not  to  a  friend  who  has  gone 
but  to  a  friend  who  has  stepped  on  a  little  way  before,  but  whom  I 
shall  overtake  in  the  swiftly  passing  years  and  join  again.  The 
words  that  I  bring  to  you  this  afternoon  represent  simply  the  tri- 
butes of  one  who  valued  the  friendship  of  this  life  and  is  genuine- 
ly sorry  that  the  threads  of  that  friendship  have  been  snapped 
for  a  time.  I  have  been  thinking  very  much  as  you  have  been 
thinking  very  much  of  this  life  and  that  v/hich  I  bring  to  you  I 
select  as  the  teachings  of  that  life  that  have  appealed  the  most  to 
me.  I  have  been  thinking  today  of  the  beauty  of  this  life.  There 
are  lives  of  which  we  can  fittingly  say,  the  life  was  beautiful,  and 
such  was  this  life.     Beauty  was  in  the  very  essence  of  this  man's 


soul.  He  loved  the  beautiful;  it  was  a  part  of  his  inner  life;  the 
blooming  of  the  flowers  and  the  singing  of  the  birds  and  the  prat- 
tle of  little  children,  and  all  the  world's  accumulated  mass  of 
beauty  which  God  has  poured  forth  so  lavishly  was  a  part  of  this 
man's  heritage  and  he  loved  beauty  and  beautiful  things  and  as 
I  think  of  the  way  in  which  that  sense  of  the  appreciation  of  the 
beautiful  spilled  itself  out  until  it  became  manifest  in  the  man 
himself.  I  think  of  this  life  then  as  a  thing  of  beauty.  I  am  glad 
and  I  think  we  have  a  right  to  be  glad  that  we  can  still  think  of 
this  life  in  terms  of  beauty.  I  have  looked  at  him  in  times  when 
I  have  thought  I  have  seen  the  heart  of  the  boy  still  there,  I 
have  seen  him  at  times  when  I  have  caught  the  dancing  lights  of 
mischief  in  his  eyes.  These  things  are  all  a  part  of  a  life  of  beau- 
ty, and  I  rejoice  this  afternoon  that  when  God  called,  when  the 
step  began  to  hesitate  a  bit,  when  the  hand  began  to  grow  a  bit 
more  feeble;  that  when  God  called,  he  called  swiftly,  and  in  all 
the  beauty  of  his  life  without  it  being  robbed  of  that;  without 
passing  through  all  the  strain  and  stress  and  decrepitude  of  sick- 
ness and  old  age ;  that  in  the  full  flush  of  a  life  of  beauty  he  passed 
on  to  be  with  God. 

And  again  I  have  been  thinking  of  this  life  the  past  day 
or  two  in  terms  of  our  common  humanity  and  our  common  bro- 
therhood. I  have  already  said  that  I  valued  this  man  as  a  friend 
and  I  think  I  can  safely  say  this  afternoon  that  he  was  a  friend  to 
man,  that  that  v.^as  one  of  the  characteristics  of  his  life.  His  Pastor 
has  already  spoken  of  the  places  of  prominence  that  he  occupied 
and  the  way  in  which  his  work  pushed  him  out  into  public  view, 
and  the  share  that  this  life  had  in  shaping  public  sentiment.  And 
again,  friends,  no  man  lives  a  full,  complete  life  without  creat- 
ing antagonisms,  it  may  be.  It  is  only  those  lives  that  are  lived 
a  vacuum  that  never  create  antagonism.  But  with  all  the  intens- 
ity of  feeling  which  was  possible  to  this  life;  with  all  the  intens- 
ity with  which  possibly  he  held  his  views,  his  theories,  his  con- 
ceptions, yet  essentially  at  heart  through  it  all  he  was  a  lover  of 
his  fellowmen.  I  was  glad  for  the  tribute  that  was  paid  to  him 
because  of  a  tender  spirit,  for  that  is  my  thought  this  afternoon. 
I  found  him  tender,  I  found  him  charitable,  I  found  him  rather 
hesitant  about  criticism  of  men's  motives,  though  he  might  differ 
from  men's  words  and  men's  deeds,  and  I  think  of  this  life  as  the 
life  of  a  man  who  lived  by  the  side  of  the  road  and  measured  the 
pulsating  stream  of  humanity  that  flowed  by  his  life  and  kept 
himself  warm  and  tender  and  sympathetic  with  his  fellowmen. 

The  other  thing  that  I  have  been  thinking  and  of  which  I 
am  going  to  speak  for  a  brief  moment  was  the  man's  vital  faith 
in  God.  I  suppose  that  I  have  voiced  the  common  experience  of 
the  ministry  when  I  say  that  it  is  our  task  to  share  other  men's 
burdens,  to  help  to  bear  the  sorrow  and  the  trials  of  other  lives.  I 


care  not  how  occupied  the  ministei'  may  be  in  the  teachings  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  continually  the  stress  and  burdens  and  pain  and 
the  sorrow  of  other  lives  are  on  him,  and  there  comes  to  us  who 
are  in  the  ministry  a  genuine  need  and  a  desire  that  we  in  turn 
share  our  innermost  lives  and  our  secret  longings  and  aspirations 
■with  other  lives.  The  deepest  and  tenderest  point  of  contact  that 
I  was  permitted  to  have  with  this  life  was  that  he  was  one  of  the 
men,  few  in  number,  to  whom  I  felt  free  to  go  with  intimate  prob- 
lems of  my  own  spiritual  life  and  with  friendly  intercourse  talk 
these  things  over.  He  was  an  older  man  than  I.  He  had  been 
longer  on  the  road.  He  had  tried  and  tested  God's  goodness  and 
God's  guidance  through  many  vicissitudes  and  I  found  a  joy  and 
satisfaction  and  a  pleasure  in  going  to  this  man  and  in  talking  to 
him  about  the  infinite  things  of  life,  and  oh,  the  thing  that  comes 
to  me  with  full  strength  this  afternoon  is  the  real  vital  faith  within 
the  heart  of  this  life.  He  believed  and  trusted  God.  He  believed 
and  trusted  Jesus  Christ  and  Christ  to  him  was  more  than  a  name — 
a  reality,  a  living,  daily  companionship.  Christ  to  him  was  closer 
than  a  friend,  closer  than  hands  or  feet.  You  will  pardon  me  if 
I  use  an  illustration  to  point  to  what  I  am  trying  to  say.  It  was 
late  in  the  last  summer  season  that  I  walked  into  his  office  about 
five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  and  pulled  my  chair  over  near  his 
chair  and  said  I  have  come  in  to  talk  with  you  a  little  while.  With 
a  smile  that  warmed  my  heart  he  said.  What  have  you  on  your 
mind.  I  said,  I  have  been  thinking  for  several  days  that  I  would 
come  in  and  have  a  little  talk  with  you.  I  said,  do  you  know  that 
as  a  man  passes  through  his  youth  and  earlier  manhood,  comes 
down  toward  the  middle  gateway  of  life,  eternity  and  eternal 
truth  mean  more  to  him ;  he  begins  to  think  less  of  the  present  and 
more  of  the  future.  Immortality,  I  said,  means  more  to  a  man 
at  that  time  than  in  the  days  of  earlier  youh,  and  I  said,  I  have 
always  wanted  for  the  last  year  to  ask  you,  as  an  older  man,  as 
one  who  had  passed  the  meridian  and  growing  near  the  westerning 
of  life's  sun;  I  wanted  to  ask  you,  as  an  older  man,  if  you  ever 
had  any  doubt  or  uncertainty  as  touching  the  life  beyond  and 
all  that  it  means  to  us. 

I  shall  cherish  that  afternoon  as  long  as  I  live.  One  hand 
was  laid  upon  my  knee  as  I  sat  there  and  as  nearly  as  I  can  quote 
his  words  he  said:  "Mr  Murray,  last  evening  I  lay  upon  the  porch, 
you  remember  the  thunder  storm  of  last  evening?  and  I  was  think- 
ing along  that  very  line"  and  he  said,  "I  want  to  say  to  you,  if  God 
had  called  to  me  out  of  the  midst  of  the  storm  and  if  God  should 
call  me  this  present  moment  of  time  and  my  life  here  should  stop, 
I  have  not  the  slightest  doubt  but  that  there  is  a  larger,  fuller, 
life  beyond.  I  have  not  the  slightest  questioning  about  God's 
goodness  and  God's  provision  for  the  future."  Men  and  women 
that's  a  vital,  living  faith,  and  that's  the  thing  I  like  to  remember 


most  of  all  about  this  brother  who  was  a  friend  of  yours  and  mine. 

Will  you  pardon  me  if  I  say  just  one  more  word?  When  I 
think  of  such  faith  as  that  I  wonder  sometimes  if  it  is  not  slip- 
ping a  little  bit  from  our  grasp.  I  wonder  sometimes  as  we  think 
of  our  fathers  and  mothers  and  those  who  are  older  than  we,  if 
after  all  they  have  not  had  something  finer  in  their  religious  ex- 
perience than  is  coming  to  many  of  us  who  are  younger.  I  wonder 
sometimes  if  to  those  of  us  who  are  bearing  the  stress  and  burden 
of  present  day  life  God  and  Jesus  Christ  are  the  realities  in  our 
living  that  they  might  be.  I  wonder  sometimes  if  the  present  is 
not  leading  the  future  instead  of  the  future  leading  the  present 
but  by  all  that  you  live  for,  by  all  that  yovi  hope  for,  the  one  thing 
in  life  most  worth  striving  for  is  just  such  a  simple  faith  in  God 
and  in  Jesus  Christ  as  that. 

To  the  family  and  for  the  near  circle  of  friends  and  for 
you  all  I  think  of  this  life  and  these  words,  "At  eventide  it  shall 
be  light."  "At  eventide  it  shall  be  light,"  and  oh,  the  light,  such 
a  light  as  never  shined  on  land  or  sea  illuminated  this  man's  soul, 
lighted  the  pathway  before  him  as  he  slipped  from  earth,  and  bore 
him,  went  all  the  Vv^ay  with  him  even  into  the  presence  of  God. 
These  simple  things  about  this  life  that  we  all  think  of  and  we 
all  recall  make  this  life  imperishable.  Hold  him  very  close  to 
you  in  memory  and  as  long  as  we  shall  live  he  shall  live  too  in  our 
thoughts  and  our  hearts. 

PRAYER  BY  REV.  NAAMAM  BASCOM. 

We  come  to  Thee,  our  Heavenly  Father,  this  afternoon 
depending  upon  Thee  for  strength  and  for  light.  We  are  here 
today  down  in  the  shadows  of  death.  We  are  surrounded  with  the 
gloom  and  the  mystery  of  death.  We  are  here  in  sadness  and 
sorrow,  this  afternoon,  because  one  of  our  number,  one  of  our 
friends,  is  gone  away  from  us  and  we  feel  that  we  have  been  left 
almost  alone.  We  do  not  know  what  to  do.  We  do  not  know 
which  way  to  look.  Of  our  own  selves  we  know  nothing.  Oh,  we 
do  thank  Thee,  our  Heavenly  Father,  this  afternoon  that  when 
we  come  into  just  such  places  as  we  are  this  afternoon,  v/hen 
clouds  and  thick  darkness  surrounds  us  on  every  side,  that  we 
can  look  to  Thee,  the  one  that  has  all  knowledge,  the  one  that  is 
the  light  of  the  world  and  is  able  to  shine  away  all  the  dark  clouds 
of  life.  We  are  glad  we  can  come  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  on 
these  occasions  and  feel  that  we  have  somthing  that  holds  us  amid 
all  the  storms  and  difficulties  of  life.  We  thank  thee  for  the 
power,  and  inspiration,  and  hope,  and  the  joy  of  the  religion  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  are  here  this  afternoon,  and  while 
we  are  sad,  and  while  tears  of  sorrow  are  flowing,  when  we  re- 
member that  just  the  other  evening  it  was  not  evening  anymore  to 
our  brother  but  the  gates  of  Heaven  were  opened  and  another  one 


of  earth's  children  after  wandering  here  in  this  world  for  seventy- 
three  years,  was  admitted  into  the  presence  of  the  great  I  AM. 
Oh,  when  we  think  of  this  and  realize  the  life  that  our  brother 
lived  among  us  and  the  hope  that  he  entertained  of  life  and  eternal 
joy  when  done  with  this  life ;  when  we  think  of  all  this  and  think 
that  today  he  is  beyond  the  clouds  of  darkness  and  he  is  over  on 
the  other  side  in  the  sunlight  of  eternal  truth;  the  sunlight  of 
eternal  joy,  in  that  land  where  the  flowers  never  wither,  where 
one  eternal  spring  abides.  He  entertained  that  hope  that  he 
had  sung  often;  there  everlasting  spring  abides.  He  felt  in  his  life 
there  was  such  a  place  planned  for  him  in  the  other  world. 

We  thank  Thee,  our  Father,  that  we  believe  that  just  be- 
yond, somewhere,  we  do  not  know  just  where,  but  just  beyond, 
over  in  the  sweet  forever,  over  in  the  land  of  the  blessed,  there 
our  brother  is  today.  Brother  Lakin  lives.  Thank  God  that  we 
believe  this;  that  over  there  on  the  other  shore  he  is  living,  happy 
in  the  presence  of  his  Lord  and  Master.  Oh,  God  help  us  this 
day  as  we  stand  over  his  remains.  Help  us  our  Father,  that  we 
may  catch  something  of  the  inspiration  of  his  life,  something  of 
the  hope  that  upheld  him  along  the  pathway;  something  of  the 
faith  that  grasped  the  realities  of  the  future,  and  made  them 
his  joy  in  his  lifetime.  Oh,  Lord,  help  this  day  as  we  are  here 
at  his  funeral,  his  friends  and  neighbors,  that  we  may  feel  that 
we  have  not  lost  our  friend;  that  he  has  just  gone  before  us.  And 
now.  Lord,  we  pray  thy  blessings  upon  us.  We  pray  Thee  to  help 
us  to  realize  how  soon,  perhaps,  we  will  be  called.  Only  a  few 
more  days.  "Death  rides  on  every  passing  breeze,  it  lurks  in 
every  flower;  each  season  has  its  own  disease,  its  peril  every  hour." 
Oh,  God,  help  this  great  congregation  that  is  gathered  here  this 
afternoon  to  pay  tribute  of  respect  to  our  brother;  help  us  every- 
one to  realize  how  much  it  means  to  live,  how  much  it  means  to 
pass  into  that  eternal  state  where  our  destiny  is  forever  fixed. 

Now  Father,  we  come  to  Thee  and  ask  Thee  to  help  these 
sorrowing  ones.  Here  is  Sister  Lakin  with  her  children  and  they 
feel  the  sorrow  of  this  event.  Oh,  Lord,  we  pray  that  Thou  would 
help  them  to  realize  not  what  they  have  lost  but  what  they  have 
gained.  One  of  the  family  today  is  safe  on  the  evergreen  shore 
and  they  can  go  to  him.  They  can  enjoy  his  company.  Oh,  today 
Father,  sustain  them  by  thy  grace.  Today  may  they  be  able  to 
see  something  of  what  they  have  to  look  forward  to  in  the  future. 
Cheer  and  comfort  them,  Father. 

Somehow  out  of  this  darkness,  do  Thou  bring  the  light  of 
eternal  truth  and  eternal  joy.  We  ask  Thee  to  take  us.  Be  with 
us;  bless  this  people;  bless  this  order  that  has  met  here  as  a  bro- 
ther of  this  our  friend.  Lord  help  them.  Bless  them,  and  guide  us 
all,  and  when  our  work  is  done  bring  us  to  thy  self,  we  ask  it  in 
the  name  of  Jesus,  our  Redeemer.     Amen. 


IISTCRICAL  SURVEY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLIN0I8-URBANA 


3  0112  050759809 


